A Vancouver police officer was stabbed in what authorities are calling a random attack in the Downtown Eastside on Tuesday night.
According to Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer, two uniformed officers were on foot patrol around 7 p.m. on Mar. 4 when a man armed with an edged weapon launched an unprovoked attack.
“One of them was randomly attacked by a suspect armed with an edged weapon, slashing our officer several times,” Palmer said.
The suspect allegedly approached the officer from behind, slashed him in the calf, and then fled. Officers quickly located and arrested the suspect near East Cordova and Main Street just minutes later.
Palmer condemned the violence, stating, “Random senseless violence is intolerable, and certain people need to be incarcerated.”
The injured officer was taken to the hospital for treatment and has since been released to recover at home.
Solaris Onatta Running Dey, 29, has been charged with aggravated assault of a police officer.
The public is now learning Dey was previously found guilty of the 2018 slaying of his 19-year-old girlfriend, Aspen Pallot.
According to court records, Dey had already been sentenced to two years in federal prison followed by three years probation in June 2021 for manslaughter. He was 22 at the time of the offense.
The judge in that case said it was unknown whether Dey experienced any symptoms of psychosis, but it was clear he suffered from a mental illness with the potential to “seriously impair his cognitive functioning.”