WARNING: This article contains graphic details and may be disturbing to some.
The trial for Jayme Pasieka, the man charged in connection with a deadly attack at a west Edmonton warehouse three years ago, continued Wednesday. Several people who were injured in the attack shared their testimony in court.
The first witness was an employee at the warehouse who was working the day of the stabbings. He told court he heard his friend’s screams and when he went over to help, the attacker stabbed him in the arm.
He said he recognized the attacker as the accused, although he didn’t know him well. The witness said he tried to avoid him whenever he saw him.
Another witness also described being attacked at the warehouse. Mahmoud Ayesh suffered three puncture wounds in the chest, one in the flank that damaged his kidney, three in his leg and at least 10 wounds on his arms.
Ayesh said the attacker came out of nowhere. He said he thought he was being punched until he felt blood.
“I thought at first he was punching me in the chest,” Ayesh told court. “When I felt the warmth of the blood flowing down my body… that’s when I realized he was trying to kill me.”
“He was saying, ‘I don’t like you’ several times, maybe four or five times… and he kept stabbing me in the chest.”
Ayesh said he was able to fight off the attacker by kicking him and managed to run away. He gathered with a group of people who started performing first aid on each other when the attacker came towards them again.
“People were scared of him and I think he was enjoying it,” Ayesh told court.
Crown prosecutor Kim Goddard asked him why he felt that way.
“He was smirking,” Ayesh said.
Witness Axamed Mektar also recalled the attacker saying “he hated us” during the rampage.
Defence lawyer Peter Royal asked about the look in the accused’s eyes and his nature during cross examination.
In response to one question from Royal, witness Abdelfetteh Aouachri said: “Someone who stabs someone in the heart is crazy.”
During the first day of the Pasieka trial on Tuesday, Goddard told the jury this will not be a “who done it” case, but a trial to determine whether the killings were planned and deliberate.
READ MORE: Crown tells jury Jayme Pasieka trial not a question of who did it but intent
Goddard told the jury on Tuesday she will prove that Pasieka bought knives at West Edmonton Mall and then randomly slashed and stabbed workers as he walked through a Loblaw complex on Feb. 28, 2014.
Fitzroy Harris, 50, and Thierno Bah, 41, were killed in the attack and four other people were injured.
The suspect fled the scene and a massive manhunt ensued. Pasieka, who was 29 years old at the time, was arrested and taken into custody in the area of 39 Street and 74 Avenue.
READ MORE: Jayme Pasieka: court documents reveal a troubled past
There’s evidence of Pasieka purchasing knives before the killings and the attacker was wearing what appeared to be body armour when he entered the warehouse.
Pasieka has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
Watch below: Survivors of a knife rampage at a west Edmonton warehouse three years ago testified in the double-murder trial of Jayme Pasieka on Wednesday. Fletcher Kent reports. WARNING: This report contains graphic and disturbing content.
With files from Fletcher Kent, Global News
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