Warning: This story contains distressing details and graphic video and audio.
Video evidence presented during a hearing for the man who entered guilty pleas in the 2023 University of Waterloo, Ont., classroom attacks shows him telling police he was a stabbing victim, then confessing and asking to be handcuffed.
The evidence was released to the public on Wednesday, over a week after former student Geovanny Villalba-Aleman pleaded guilty to stabbing two students and an associate professor in a gender-studies class in Hagey Hall in June 2023.
It includes police body-camera footage, along with audio recordings of the man walking into the classroom and speaking to the instructor before pulling two kitchen knives out of his bag and stabbing her. The court did not specify the source of the audio recording.
Police have called the attack “a hate-motivated incident related to gender expression and gender identity.” A third student was also almost stabbed while trying to flee.
In the over six-minute video, police find the man, who was 24 at the time, in a room other than the gender-studies class.
He at first tells police he was a victim, then gives a description of the person he says attacked him and says the person had two knives. Then, he abruptly says, “You know something … actually … please handcuff me, because it was me.” He’s then handcuffed and shows officers where to find the kitchen knife inside his backpack.
He had been charged with attempted murder and mischief, and also faced terrorism charges.
In a Kitchener court on June 3, he pleaded guilty to:
- Two charges of aggravated assault.
- One charge of assault causing bodily harm.
- One charge of assault with a weapon.
Students plead with attacker to put down knife: audio
The audio recordings played at the plea hearing included the very moments the ex-student walked into the classroom and spoke to the instructor before pulling out two large kitchen knives and attacking her.
WARNING: This video contains graphic content. This is an audio recording from inside the gender studies class at the University of Waterloo in June 2023 that was targeted by Geovanny Villalba-Aleman.
Several minutes of screaming from the instructor and the students fleeing the classroom were recorded, along with sounds of some students throwing chairs and other items at the attacker.
Students are heard screaming and pleading with the attacker to put down the knife as the instructor exclaims, “Someone is stabbing us. Please call 911,” while the attack continues.
The audio includes voices telling others to “run, run now” as the sounds of desks, chairs and other classroom items are heard falling on the ground.
The evidence packet also included a photograph of a small Pride flag that was ripped up into pieces on a table.
Investigators found the flag inside the classroom after the attack. It was confirmed Villalba-Aleman had destroyed the flag, but who it originally belonged to wasn’t known.
After the arrest, police also found a manifesto among the former student’s belongings. The manifesto referenced Anders Behring Breivik and Brenton Tarrant, and said the two convicted terrorists behind the 2011 Norway attacks and the 2019 Christchurch mosque attack, respectively, “did nothing wrong”.
Post-arrest video from the police station was also presented in court. An investigator can be heard talking to him off camera. The officer asks Villalba-Aleman if he would attack police if they took his handcuffs off, to which the man responded he wouldn’t as long as they aren’t members of the far left.
Sentencing is scheduled to take place over five days in October, when the judge will hear victim impact statements and sentencing submissions from prosecutors on the terrorism charge.