Suspect’s actions puzzling

FATAL STABBING: Accused’s behaviour baffled police officers

Officers who arrived at the scene of the fatal stabbing of a Burnaby community support worker told a judge Wednesday about the bizarre behaviour of the woman accused of the crime.

RCMP officers found Ayelech Ejigu, who has pleaded not guilty to the September 2011 seconddegree murder of Bayush Hagos, 57, lying on her back on the balcony of the victim’s 10th-floor apartment suite.

Const. Aaron Cheng testified that he went out onto the balcony and found a woman later identified as Ejigu after he had discovered the body of Hagos surrounded by blood in a bedroom in the apartment.

“The female was shaking violently and groaning,” he said of the woman identified as Ejigu.

Another officer on the balcony told Ejigu to drop the serrated steak knife, but she did not do so and instead started hitting herself on the head with the bladed portion of the knife, he said.

The other cop instructed Cheng to disarm the accused and Cheng pinned her right arm to the floor and grabbed the knife.

“Was she still shaking violently?” asked Crown counsel Brendan McCabe. “Yes,” replied Cheng. The officer told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies that after he’d disarmed Ejigu, he put on latex gloves and went to hold her hand.

Under cross-examination from Ejigu’s lawyer, Janet Winteringham, Cheng agreed that in his notes taken immediately after the incident, he’d written that Ejigu was shaking “seizure-like” when he disarmed her.

Earlier, Cheng testified that when he entered the bedroom where the victim was, he found the room in a mess and discovered a “lot of blood” when he walked on the floor.

The victim was lying face down on the floor between the bed and a glass sliding door to the balcony.

Cheng observed blood on the wall to his right and noticed that the victim was only wearing underwear.

“I tried to shake her to see if she would respond and she didn’t,” said Cheng, adding that he also observed that she had lacerations on her head and her mid-back.

Asked by McCabe whether he drew any conclusions, he said he believed the victim was dead.

Another officer checked and could not detect a pulse, Cheng said.

Const. Darrell Black said that when he entered the bedroom, he observed a “fair bit of blood” on the walls and also on the bed.

Black testified that he saw a body lying face down covered in blood and saw large wounds on the hamstring area of the legs as well as wounds on the lower back, neck and head areas.

After moving the body from being partially under the bed, he could detect no pulse. He called out and got no response.

“I felt there was nothing I could do.”