Security company shares details of stabbing attack at Campbell River Walmart

Brazen shoplifting on the rise After a security guard was stabbed while trying to stop a shoplifter in Campbell River, police say similar crimes are increasingly common.

Campbell River, B.C. — The owner of a security company is clarifying the moments that led up to one of his employees being stabbed at the Campbell River Walmart Tuesday morning.

Vali Majd, CEO and director of JFT Security says a 60-year-old guard who has 25 years’ experience was coming to the assistance of another guard Tuesday morning and had just rounded a corner when he was stabbed.

“(The attacker) just jumped at him and stabbed him multiple times,” Majd says. “He was stabbed in the arm, in the upper chest, luckily he was wearing his vest.”

Majd says moments earlier a female guard noticed a 30-year-old man who had been previously banned from Walmart entering the store for the second time on Tuesday. He was ejected from the store, but then came back wearing a disguise and was approached again.

“He showed a knife and he said, ‘I’m going to stab you,’” Majd says. “She increased distance and got on the radio, passed on the transmission to our other guard who came around the corner face to face with him and he didn’t really get time to engage him.”

As the guard was bleeding, the suspect then went farther into the store and began gathering items.

“The fellow proceeded to go on his shoplifting spree, he went and grabbed a number of TVs and went out the door” Majd says.

JFT employs approximately 100 guards up and down the island and Majd says problems like this are occurring at many different venues.

“We make the difference between opportunist people, or people who have mental health issues and then in this case, something we refer to as organized crime,” he says.

He believes merchandise that is stolen ends up online or on Ebay or are taken to fulfil special orders.

“(The customer says), ‘I want a TV and a pair of sneakers,’ and these people go get it and either sell it at a discount rate or they trade it in,” Majd says. “The days of going and selling it at a pawn shop are long gone, because they know better and there are much easier ways to resell these products.”

Majd says the issue is a “complicated landscape” that needs changing.

“It starts with the courts,” he says. “Crown and prosecutors are not prosecuting, for example, shoplifting charges and so people are feeling more bold to take it to the next level and this is where we see the civility element rapidly (erode).”

Majd checked in on the guard Wednesday morning and says he is doing well and is anxious to return to work.

“He’s stable, he had to go through an emergency surgery last night when they realized it was a brachial artery that was hit,” Majd says. “He’ll be out for some time and he’s in good spirits. Hopefully he has no further complications.”

The suspect was arrested by Campbell River RCMP late Tuesday afternoon and was expected to make a court appearance on Wednesday.