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'She wanted to kill me,' Vancouver courthouse stabbing accused says of victim

Catherine Shen faces multiple charges following a Vancouver Law Courts incident, where police officers found two women on the ground, one with multiple injuries.
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Vancouver provincial courthouse at 222 Main St.

A woman accused of a stabbing in a B.C. Supreme Court hearing room said her alleged victim wanted her dead.

“She wanted to kill my son and also burn him with oil,” Qin Qin Shen, also known as Catherine Shen, told Vancouver provincial court Judge Kathryn Denhoff July 20, testifying with the aid of an interpreter.

“Also, she wanted to kill me,” Shen said on cross-examination by her defence lawyer Scott Wright.

Shen is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose in connection with a May 25, 2021 incident at the Vancouver Law Courts.

Court documents say the victim in the alleged assault is Jing Lu.

The women have reportedly been online rivals for years and have been feuding personally and legally.

“She destroyed my reputation so much that I couldn’t live a normal life,” Shen told the court. “I couldn’t go out and meet new people.”

The case stems from an incident in a court hearing room. Sheriffs were called to a panic button and found two women on the ground, one of them with multiple injuries, the other in handcuffs.

“Massive blood loss and blood on the ground,” Deputy Sheriff Chris Zanotto testified April 6.

Nearby were a knife and hammer, he said.

Deputy Sheriff Kulvinder Bagri, a first-aid attendant, checked to see if the injured woman was conscious and breathing. He found lacerations and puncture wounds.

He said she did not regain consciousness in the 15 to 20 minutes before emergency health services arrived.

The trial was suspended for a period in early July after Shen was attacked in jail and required surgery.

jhainsworth@glaciermedia.ca

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