Showing a poise most adults wouldn’t display, a young Calgary girl described for police how her stepdad fatally attacked her mom and a family friend. \u00a0The girl, whose name is protected by a publication ban, spoke to detectives just hours after her mom was assaulted when she returned to her matrimonial home to pick up some clothing.<\/p>\n
Calmly and articulately, the then-nine-year-old told Det. Shawn Goertzen how Hari Pal attacked her mom, Sanjula Devi, inside the Penbrooke Dr. S.E. basement suite around 6 p.m. on May 4, 2014.<\/p>\n
She said she, her mom, along with family friend Fahmida Velji-Visram, had gone to the home to gather some belongings after they’d moved out a couple of weeks earlier.<\/p>\n
But as she retrieved items from her bedroom and her mother did the same in the master bedroom, Pal began stabbing Velji-Visram, the girl told police in the videotaped interview played Monday for Justice Ged Hawco.<\/p>\n
Her mother then raced into her bedroom, and they locked the door with Pal on the outside.<\/p>\n
“He started stabbing (Velji-Visram) and then me and my mom ran in my room and locked the door,” the girl told Goertzen.<\/p>\n
“My mom was trying to get her phone out of her purse and call 911.”<\/p>\n
Pal managed to kick the door in before the emergency call could be made.<\/p>\n
As Pal, who faces two counts of second-degree murder, as well as a third charge of attempted murder for stabbing a third woman, entered the room Devi tried to escape, her daughter said.<\/p>\n
“My dad just caught up to her and he started stabbing her really badly,” the girl said.<\/p>\n
Pal continued to chase and assault Devi as the victim tried to escape the basement suite, her daughter said.<\/p>\n
“My mom just passed out on the floor by the side door and he just ran away.”<\/p>\n
During the attack, the landlord’s daughter came downstairs and Pal stabbed her in the back, the girl said.<\/p>\n
“I saw the whole thing happen,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There was a lot of blood.”<\/p>\n
“So you saw all of this happen?” Goertzen asked at one point.<\/p>\n
“Yeah,” the girl said.<\/p>\n
“Whoof, that’s really terrible,” he said.<\/p>\n
While the girl was composed throughout her conversations with police, she could be heard crying when left alone in the interview room.<\/p>\n
In court, the now 13-year-old told Crown prosecutor Sonya Bertrand she only learned of her mother’s death after the interview.<\/p>\n
Hawco was impressed with the girl’s demeanour.<\/p>\n
“You’ve been amazingly composed and well-spoken,” he told her at the conclusion of her evidence.<\/p>\n
Before the trial began, defence lawyer Andre Ouellette once again raised concerns about his client’s mental ability to understand the legal proceedings.<\/p>\n
Pal had been declared fit to stand trial 10 days earlier, but Ouellette said his client appeared unclear on why he was in court.<\/p>\n
When asked what his pleas were on the three charges Pal responded, through a Hindi interpreter, “I do not know.”<\/p>\n
At the lawyer’s request, psychiatrist Dr. David Tano, who did the earlier fitness assessment, spoke to Pal over the lunch break and determined he still understood what was going on.<\/p>\n
“We’re not going to do this every day,” Hawco told Ouellette after co-prosecutor Joe Mercier informed the court about the doctor’s latest findings.<\/p>\n
The trial continues on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
BY KEVIN MARTIN<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0calgarysun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"