A 21-year-old Campbell River father was at a gathering retelling the story of how he was stabbed two weeks ago shortly before being stabbed again Friday, according to a statement from his family.
Colin Dube-Wheat was at a social gathering at a friend’s nearby house Friday night, cousin Jen Fyfe said in a statement.
Shortly after arriving around 7 p.m., he shared his July 14 experience, when he was stabbed in downtown Campbell River, Fyfe said.
“Not long after, he was sitting looking at his phone and felt someone standing behind him,” she said. “He assumed they were just looking at his phone over his shoulder, but suddenly the person behind him repeatedly stabbed him in the neck.”
Fyfe said that Dube-Wheat screamed for help and ran, but the assailant caught him outside and continued the attack until one of Dube-Wheat’s friends pulled off the assailant.
The assailant allegedly told Dube-Wheat that he “had to die and be sacrificed,” she said.
Dube-Wheat received at least seven new stab wounds that night which required hours of neck surgery, Fyfe said.
He has a long road to recovery, she said.
A suspect was arrested by RCMP that night. The suspect, whose name is under a publication ban, resisted arrest and injured two officers before he was taken into custody.
RCMP said that the suspect was known to Dube-Wheat and that drug use may have played a role in the stabbing.
Police have so far declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation and judicial process.
Fyfe said that Dube-Wheat believes that the attacker may have been triggered into a drug-induced psychosis by the retelling of his first stabbing.
“Colin did not use any illicit drugs, and is not involved in the drug industry,” Fyfe said in the statement.
She said that Dube-Wheat had visited his friend’s house several times for social support since he was released from a Victoria hospital following open-heart surgery after his first stabbing on July 14.
Fyfe has previously said that Dube-Wheat was first stabbed by someone standing beside an unconscious person at 4:30 a.m. when he responded to cries for help.
That incident is under investigation by Campbell River RCMP’s major crimes unit.
After the second attack, a small number of people have pulled their donations to an online fundraiser that was set up to help Dube-Wheat recover from the initial stabbing, out of “anger or judgment,” Fyfe said.
Fyfe said that her statement was written from reports of what Dube-Wheat has told her mother — who helped raise Dube-Wheat since he was a toddler — and Dube-Wheat’s fiancée, Sarah.
“We have been told this is an isolated, drug-induced violent episode, a random attack,” she said.
The family statement was vetted by Dube-Wheat, who OK’d the release of these details, Fyfe said.
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