A Vancouver police officer is talking publicly for the first time about being stabbed in the chest while on duty in 2021.
The attack happened as he was rescuing an abducted child.
The two-year-old boy was snatched from his grandparents and forcibly confined by a man, who was holding him inside a suite at a BC Housing complex on Keefer Street.
When officers arrived, they could hear yelling and crying inside the suite. Fearing for the child’s life, officers breached the suite’s door.
Detective Const. Blake Chersinoff was first in.
“I remember a figure hunched down in kind of a squatting stance with two large knives in his hand, and with one of those knives coming into my chest,” he told Global News.
“I was stabbed with a large butcher knife, kitchen knife in my left chest in the pec.”
Officers were able to save the boy and take the suspect into custody before Chersinoff was rushed to hospital where he received multiple chest staples.
The officers’ heroics were officially acknowledged at the Vancouver Police Department’s 2024 Commendation Awards on Thursday.
Chersinoff received VPD’s highest honour, the Chief Constable’s Award of Valour.
“Just the bravery and the commitment to public safety is incredible,” Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer said, adding he was proud of Chersinoff and the other officers who received awards.
Now fully recovered from the physical injuries, the heroic officer says he continues his policing career, knowing that his actions helped save the life of a little boy.