Police seek info on man accused in deadly attack
Investigators still have very little information on Gabriel Brandon Klein, the homeless man accused in a deadly double stabbing in Abbotsford, and they’re turning to the public for help in piecing together his history.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has released a surveillance photo taken of the 21-year-old just hours before 13-year-old Letisha Reimer was killed and her 14-year-old friend was wounded in an apparently random attack at Abbotsford Senior Secondary on Tuesday afternoon.
They’re asking anyone who’s had contact with him to call police.
“It’s rare that we don’t have a lot of details about an individual,” said Staff Sgt. Jennifer Pound of IHIT.
People living on the streets and sleeping in shelters in the Fraser Valley city did not recognize Klein’s picture Thursday.
Pastor Ward Draper with The 5 and 2 Ministries said his staff was unfamiliar with Klein. He estimated he sees 12 to 15 new people on the streets each week.
“It’s overwhelming,” he said, adding the stabbing was a tragedy on many levels. “It further entrenches society’s idea that the homeless are violent and crazy.”
Investigators believe Klein came to B.C. from Alberta, and has been in the Lower Mainland since February or March of this year.
He has been known to frequent the Edmonton and Barrhead areas, although he had no fixed address in those places.
According to court records from Alberta, a man with the same name and age as Klein was charged with four traffic offences in Calgary in 2014 and 2015, including three tickets for tampering with a vehicle and one for riding public transit without a valid pass.
The accused man was taken to hospital immediately after his arrest at the scene of the stabbing, and was in the hospital overnight. He has since been released and is in police custody.
A GoFundMe account has been established for the family of Reimer.
As of Thursday afternoon, the account set up by a family friend had raised over $34,000 to assist the grieving family. The initial goal was to raise $10,000.
The account can be found at gofundme.com/loss-of-a-lifetime.