A graduate of the University of Waterloo in Canada has been hit with multiple charges over a stabbing rampage during a gender studies class that left three people with serious injuries.
The allegations: Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, 24, is accused of walking into the class at around 3:30 p.m. on June 28 and stabbing three people, including the class’s 38-year-old professor and two students aged 19 and 20.
According to police, he spoke with the professor “before attacking her with two large knives without provocation.” As students scrambled out of the Hagey Hall classroom, he stabbed two and tried to attack a third, who was not injured.
Police believe the attack was “a hate-motivated incident related to gender expression and gender identity.”
The aftermath: Villalba-Aleman, an international student who graduated from the university last year, allegedly posed as a victim before responding officers identified and arrested him. Meanwhile, all three victims were taken to a hospital with “serious but non-life-threatening” injuries, police said.
The charges: Villalba-Aleman has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault, four counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of weapon possession for a dangerous purpose. Additionally, he was charged with one count of mischief under $5,000 in connection with a ripped Pride flag.
What’s next: Villalba-Aleman is expected to appear in court on Tuesday for a bail hearing.
Meanwhile, the University of Waterloo — whose student population is over 50% Asian — is looking into its emergency notification system. University officials said the institution’s in-house emergency alert system did not work as expected, with the WatSAFE app sending an alert to students 90 minutes after the stabbings occurred.
