Man killed, woman hurt in knife attack at clinic
Calgary police believe stabbings at doctor’s office ‘domestic in nature’
CALGARY Police have arrested a suspect in a knife attack in a north Calgary doctor’s office that left one dead and another wounded Thursday afternoon.
“At this point, investigators believe the incident to be domestic in nature,” said Duty Insp. Dean LeGrange.
Police officers, paramedics and firefighters were called to a medical centre at 1623 Centre St. N. for reports of a stabbing at about 2:35 p.m. Thursday. They found one man already dead and a woman suffering “superficial” wounds.
The suspect, the victim and the injured woman all knew each other, LeGrange said, declining to elaborate on the relationships between the trio. All three were said to be in their 40s to 50s.
The woman, believed to be in her mid-50s, was taken to Sheldon Chumir with a minor soft-tissue injury, said EMS spokesman Stuart Brideaux.
The suspect was also treated at the scene for non-life threatening wounds sustained in the struggle. Though LeGrange said the man killed was the intended target of the attack, he said he wasn’t sure what led to the incident.
“I can’t speculate on what the thought process of the suspect was going into this,” said LeGrange. “You can draw your own conclusions, it being domestic in nature.”
When police arrived at the Central Landmark building, where the incident happened, they found the suspect still inside the Perpetual Wellness Chinese Medical Centre on the second floor, LeGrange said.
The man, who was wearing a bloodstained green T-shirt and had blood covering the soles of his shoes, had his head bowed as officers escorted him away in handcuffs. LeGrange said he didn’t know why the man didn’t try to flee.
“He was calm and cooperative with us, didn’t put up a struggle and was taken into custody without incident,” LeGrange said.
Witnesses at the Central Landmark building, where the attack happened, described a chaotic scene.
Emma Wong, 54, owns Essential Eyewear on the first floor of the building. She said she heard a commotion upstairs.
“All of a sudden we heard a lot of shouting,” she said. “It got worse, considerably louder, so I went out to look.”
Then, Wong said she saw people rushing downstairs and a police officer with a gun drawn running up.
The owners of a bakery and a dim sum restaurant at the bottom of the stairs immediately threw down their security gates, Wong said, afraid they were in danger.
“It’s so scary when something like this happens,” Wong said. “We hear people arguing here a lot so we didn’t think anything of it at first.”
Nancy Zhu, who works as a nurse at Olive Medical, across from Perpetual Wellness, said she helped apply first aid to a woman whose hand was injured.
Police officers were seen guarding the outside and going into the Perpetual Wellness Chinese Medicine Centre for hours after the incident.
LeGrange said the victim ran the clinic. The office window there bears the name Dr. Tiejun Huang, followed by credentials Ph.D./MD R.Ac RMT DTCM.
It also states on the window the doctor was a sports medicine specialist at the Beijing Olympic Games, a professor in sports medicine and rehabilitation and performs acupuncture and Chinese “Tuina” massage.
An autopsy for the victim was scheduled for Friday.