EDMONTON – A Loblaw warehouse employee spoke to Global News about Friday’s deadly stabbing spree at his workplace and his efforts to stop the suspect and save his friend’s life.
“We ate together every day,” says Saliou Ba, “every day.”
Ba returned to his workplace on Monday to receive counselling. His friend, Thierno Bah, was one of the two people killed.
“Even the day that it happened, the same table,” he recalls.
They even spent their afternoon break together on Friday, and Ba says, as they were heading back to work around 1:45 p.m., the unthinkable happened.
“Jayme, he came in and then he did what he did to him.”
“He hurt four other people,” says Ba. “One of them, he was running, was running and bleeding at the same time and said ‘somebody has a knife there’ and I said ‘who?’ and then said ‘run, run, run.’ So, everybody runs, said ‘get out of the building, out of the building.’”
Ba says he ran out to the parking lot and tried to get more information from other coworkers who had gathered there.
“Then he saw us standing, talking, and then he came with the knife.”
“He did not say nothing, he was just coming towards us with the knife. And then we all ran.”
Ba says the attacker got into his vehicle and started to drive away.
“I yelled to the other people out here, I tell them ‘block the exit, do not let him go out.’”
“Two of the guys, they blocked it. But … he was coming with big speed. Nobody wanted to get hurt, so they opened the gate…They reversed and let him pass.”
Once the attacker was gone, Ba went back to see if he could help his friend.
“We took the guy inside, because it was freezing outside, and then I take my hands and pressed his heart here, because he was bleeding,” said Ba, gesturing to his chest.
“I asked him to lie down until the ambulance came.”
Forty-one year-old Thierno Bah did not survive his injuries. Fifty-year-old Fitzroy Harris was also killed.
After an intense manhunt, Pasieka was arrested near 39 Street and 74 Avenue shortly after 5:00 p.m. on Friday.
WATCH: Edmonton police capture suspect in deadly stabbings
On Saturday, he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of possession of an offensive weapon and one count of aggravated assault.
(Above: raw video of Saliou Ba recounting what he experienced on Friday)
The event still haunts Ba.
“During the night I don’t sleep, I see everything… I wake up if I hear some noise.”
He adds that he thinks about what happened constantly.
“Always… every day.”
“If I’m at home, it feels like I’m not safe,” says Ba.
“I close my door. I am there with my baby… every five minutes or 10 minutes I have to go and check … if the door is still locked.”
The warehouse was open again on Monday, but Ba says he still needs some time.
“I’m not quite ready,” he explained.
“I need to be alone.”
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