Man sentenced to 15 years for killing of UBC Okanagan security guard

Harmandeep Kaur was fatally attacked at UBC's Okanagan campus on Feb. 26, 2022. (Submitted)

A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a fatal attack on an on-duty security guard at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus in 2022.

Dante Ognibene-Hebbourn, now 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Kelowna court on Tuesday and was sentenced Wednesday.

After credit for time served, Ognibene-Hebbourn will spend 10 years and three months behind bars.

He was originally detained under the Mental Health Act and charged with second-degree murder after the Feb. 26 killing.

The victim, 24-year-old Harmandeep Kaur, came to Canada from India in 2015 and had dreams of becoming a paramedic.

She was working an overnight shift when Ognibene-Hebbourn, according to an agreed statement of facts read at a sentencing hearing Tuesday covered by Castanet, repeatedly kicked and punched her. Kaur died in hospital the next day of head trauma.

The court heard the pair knew one another; Ognibene-Hebbourn worked as a janitor at the university. The accused stopped taking his prescribed anti-psychotic medication some time before the attack and was on multiple drugs that night, putting him in a “profound state of psychosis.”

Kaur was patrolling when she saw Ognibene-Hebbourn masturbating in a classroom, according to his police statement referenced in court.

“He didn’t want her to tell anybody, because he did not want to seem like a pervert,” Castanet quotes Crown counsel David Grabavac saying.

He recounted the ensuing sequence of events to the court, which were captured on security video, beginning with a shirtless Ognibene-Hebbourn following Kaur through the campus before violently attacking her.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Kaur’s parents described her as a “bright light” in the family who hoped to serve her community and save lives as a paramedic.

“That night, it could have been a student in danger, but it was her, and even in her last shift, she was doing what she always did, protecting others,” it said, according to Castanet. “We are so proud of her bravery, her commitment and selfless heart. She had a pure heart, a strong spirit and endless love for her family.”

The sentencing hearing is scheduled to continue Wednesday.