Man found stabbed on Labour Day recovering

Sister seeks answers as victim likely to stay in hospital for a few weeks

Leanne Poochay wants to know who stabbed her brother Barry and left him for dead in the early hours of Monday morning.

She said a doctor told the family Barry was not stabbed with a normal kitchen knife, but with a blade that was only an inch and a half long.

“The doctor said if he waited another half-hour or so, he would have died,” Leanne said.

Barry sustained a knife wound that penetrated the muscle surrounding his heart; the blade also damaged his ribs and punctured his intestines. Since Monday, he has undergone surgery twice. His breathing tubes have been removed and he is now able to speak.

“So far, everything went well,” Leanne said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

On Monday, police went to a home on Shaftsbury Place in Meadowgreen after someone reported a man banging on a window and asking for help.

Officers arrived to find a 43-yearold man — Barry Poochay — with a stab wound to his chest. The home’s occupants did not know him.

Leanne said she’s thankful someone was home to help her brother, and that they heard him.

“We’re happy that he’s safe and well,” she said.

The family found out he was injured when a nurse called to tell them Barry was in the intensive care unit, but when they got to the hospital, a police officer had no information for them, she added.

Her sister-in-law found out about the stabbing that afternoon from a StarPhoenix online article.

Leanne said Barry lives with her and helps with their mother, who is in a wheelchair. He went out with friends on Sunday night and on a normal night, he would go straight home after to sleep, she said, noting his usual walking route takes him through a tunnel near Pendygrasse Road and through a park.

“He’s been approached there once before but they never (did) anything,” she said.

She wants to know why someone would do this to her brother. “I would like to ask them a bunch of questions on how they would feel if somebody ever did that to them.”

Her brother will likely remain in hospital for three to four more weeks, in the intensive care unit. Leanne said she is stressed and thinking about moving.

“I’m up and down emotionally,” she said.