A man who stabbed and killed another man during an altercation over smoking on the patio of a downtown Vancouver Starbucks has been found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter instead of second-degree murder. Inderdeep Singh Gosal has been in custody since he was arrested on March 26, 2023, just moments after he stabbed Paul Schmidt six times in the torso and neck. It began as a verbal altercation when Schmidt confronted Gosal for smoking cannabis while seated at a table near the entrance to the café. In reasons for judgement, Justice Kathleen Ker said CCTV video of the deadly interaction was the most compelling and objective evidence at trial. She called Schmidt the initial aggressor, saying he was “sinewy, agile, able” and he “readily adopted a fighting stance” when starting the physical altercation by “quickly advancing on Mr. Gosal.” Video evidence shows Gosal pulling a knife from a pocket on his hoodie as Schmidt got close to him. “Mr. Schmidt confronted, punched at and started to corner Mr. Gosal,” Ker said. The justice noted many inconsistencies in Gosal’s testimony at trial—but said she accepted that he feared for his life during the confrontation. Just 28 seconds after the physical fight began, Schmidt, who was at the coffee shop with his partner and their three-year-old child, collapsed in a pool of blood on the patio. In her reasons for judgement, Ker said Gosal went too far. “He was no longer acting in self-defence, but he was still acting in the heat of the moment, likely disinhibited and angry, and responding to a situation where he perceived his life was in danger,” Ker told the court. Police arrived on scene moments after the stabbing, and Gosal surrendered. “I did it. He came after me,” Gosal immediately said according to testimony from a Vancouver police officer. During the trial, the court heard Gosal has schizophrenia and suffers from psychotic symptoms and delusions of reference. In his testimony, he told the court that he had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication. At trial, Crown highlighted a number of inconsistencies in Gosal’s story, including about buying or finding the knife, exaggerating how much alcohol he drank the day of the stabbing, and offering psychiatrists varying descriptions of his mental state. “His evidence was what one might call all over the proverbial map,” Ker said. Still, she said on the whole, the evidence presented at trial left her in a state of uncertainty, and the Crown had failed to meet the threshold for her to convict Gosal on the second-degree murder charge. No date has been set for a sentencing hearing. When his sentence is ultimately handed down, Gosal could get additional credit for the time he has already spent in custody.
