Friends, family rally around stabbed mother of three
When Susanne Till dropped her daughter off for dance lessons in North Vancouver's Lynn Valley Mall at 1 p.m. on Saturday, she stopped to chat with her friend, Brianna Giles, a vice-principal at RNB Dance Studio.
They joked about Till's youngest daughter's haircut and chatted about volunteer work the mother does at the dance studio, before she headed to the nearby Booster Juice to wait for her child to finish dancing. About 15 minutes later, Giles learned from a paramedic that Till had been stabbed, one of seven victims of a knife-wielding man who rampaged through the popular, family-friendly mall on a warm Saturday at the end of Spring Break.
“(Till) is a single mom of three kids. She would do anything for them. She is a huge part of the RNB Dance and Lynn Valley community,” said a grieving Giles. “I have known Susanne for more than 10 years. Susanne is amazing.”
Giles ran back to her studio to look after the young dancers, phone their parents, and deliver the sad news to Till's daughter that her mother had been injured.
“Seeing the look on her daughter's face when she heard that her mom had been hurt will be something I will never forget,” Giles said.
She has recently spoken to Till's oldest daughter, who said the family is doing “as well as could be” and her mother remains optimistic.
A GoFundMe page had raised more than $120,000 by Monday afternoon for Till, described as the “epitome of motherhood” to her children who attend nearby Queensbury Elementary.
“Susanne's injuries are extensive and life-changing, and at this time it is unknown if she will need more surgery. Her rehabilitation will be exhaustive and she will not be able to return to work anytime in the near future,” says the page, created by organizer Kirsten Emerson.
One woman in her 20s died of her injuries following Saturday's attack, and suspect Yannick Bandaogo, 28, faces a second-degree murder charge. Information about the other victims is slowly starting to emerge. Argyle Secondary biology teacher Sheloah Klausen had taken her 10-year-old daughter to a book fair at the library in the mall when she saw the suspect and bravely tried to protect others.
“She heard and saw a man running really fast toward a woman and started stabbing her, and that's when she yelled to her daughter to run and hide,” said Klausen's sister, Leah Carol Michayluk.
“My sister grabbed her umbrella and started beating the guy. He turned around and slashed her (hand), and stabbed her in the back of her skull.”
After being stabbed in the library, Klausen sat on the ground outside as a bystander helped her hold napkins or a cloth to her bleeding head. Paramedic Ingrid Westcott was in one of the first ambulances to arrive at the scene, and said the public's help during the incident was “exceptional.”
Klausen received stitches to her hand, staples in her head, and is now recovering at home with her husband and daughter.
“Physically, she feels great. Emotionally, she's traumatized and has a lot of scared feelings for the victims, especially the young lady who passed away. In her mind, she goes over and over and over it again. She doesn't know why this would have happened, and why her,” Michayluk said.
North Vancouver mother Jini Segulam Singh-Henderson posted on Facebook that her young adult daughter was one of the victims, and that she is recovering from her injuries. “Heartfelt thanks to our Lynn Valley neighbours and the many others we don't know personally for their well-wishes, prayers and gifts dropped off for my daughter and our family. We're a bit overwhelmed by (Saturday's) events and trying to get some rest right now,” Singh-Henderson posted on the North Van Cares Foundation Facebook page. “My focus right now is Emma, and my other daughters.”
Jacquie McCarnan, the founder of North Van Cares, which was created during the pandemic to help North Vancouver residents, found out on Saturday about the stabbings through social media. She immediately started calling her network, and in a short time discovered she had connections to several of the victims through her foundation's 3,500 members.
“One of the women who was stabbed in the face and her hands was treated in hospital. She is recovering at home. She's young and she is obviously absolutely distraught,” McCarnan said. “She has a really good community of helpers, and I know that she has spoken to victim services and understands what's available to her.”
But McCarnan has heard there may be a wait to see counsellors with victims services. And since her foundation's members wanted to help those who were injured, she started a different GoFundMe page, which will support all the victims with whatever future needs they may have. It raised more than $13,000 in the first day.
“I think it's a testament to our community, how people are just immediately looking for ways to help and support these people.”