“On August 17, 2021, I was attacked, mutilated and feared to be killed,” said SGT VPD. Anil Singh declared by reading his declaration of impact on the victim to Global News in a recent interview.
Three and a half years after being viciously attacked by responding to a call to downtown Vancouver, the patrol officer became emotional reciting his own words.
“It’s incredible to see how it sneaks you,” said Singh, fighting tears remembering the events that left him serious life injuries. “It’s disturbing to think.”
Singh was on the patrol on August 7, 2021, when around 5:30 am, the Vancouver police service received a complaint from the staff of the Hotel GEC – an unwanted man sleeping in the hall of the 718 Drake Street.
According to the British Columbia (IIOBC) independent surveys (IIOBC), man, identified later as Carlo Telechea, had urinated outside and was then faced with the security of the hotel.
Telechea sought to enter the hotel and when the female security goalkeeper refused him, he crossed the door to the front.
The events that took place inside the hall were captured on CCTV.
A few minutes later, Singh was the first officer to come to the call, and he expected him to redirect someone without a place to go – in a nearby refuge.
“I thought it was something I can go and help someone,” recalls Singh in an interview with Global News.
He entered the hall, where the director of the hotel and the security guard underlined Telechea, who had lay on a sofa and seemed to sleep.
Singh said he had identified himself as a police officer and asked the man to wake up.
When he has not responded to his verbal orders, Singh fired him.
“The minute I went to wake him up, the fight was on,” said Singh.
Telechea immediately jumped on his feet and rushed to Singh, loading forward and hitting the officer on several occasions.
“He was deliberate, he was precise and I thought he was going to kill me,” recalls Singh.
Singh fell back and fired his stick to try to block the success of Telechea, while shouting: “I am the police, I am the police.”
“Whenever I tried to distance himself, he continued to move forward and continued to grasp,” said Singh, who was finally thrown on the ground.
Telechea continued to attack, hit, kicking and kneeling and kneeling before tearing the free stick for the officer’s reach.
At that time, said Singh, his attacker started swinging the stick as a baseball bat.
The officer tried to use his left hand to protect his head, while shouting “Stop, stop!”
Meanwhile, the director of the hotel and the security guard have fallen into the office and locked the door.
“When I’m on my knees, I think this next blow will kill me,” said Singh when he remembered having been grouped with his own stick.
For the first time in his career, the sergeant was forced to dismiss his service pistol.
“Nothing happened after the first time,” said Singh. “After the second blow, he dropped the stick and for me, the threat is over. For me now, as contradictory as it seems, it is now a question of providing help with the person who tried to kill me. »»
Telechea fell to the ground, injured in the area of the arm, legs, hip and groin, according to the IIOBC.
At the same time, two safeguarding officers arrived at the scene, putting the Singh striker in detention and asking for paramedical paramedics.
Only 48 seconds had passed since the arrival of Singh in the hotel hall.
“If I had not used my handgun, I would be dead and I would not be here today,” Singh told Global News. “For weeks later, that’s what I hurt, how can I go to want to help someone go to a refuge, have to shoot them twice.”
Once he saw the surveillance of the hotel in the entire incident, Singh said he had started to better understand what he entered.
“There is an entire sequence of events that led him to wait to ambush me,” he told Global News.
Singh did not realize what had happened before his arrival, and said that if he did it, his approach would have been completely different.
“I did not know that this guy had terrorized the two employees, that he had entered the hall, he had confronted them, he urinated throughout the hall, then when the police were called, he went intentionally and a been established to claim that he was asleep. “
It took seven months before Singh could return to active service.
The video surveillance has entered as parts of the British Columbia Supreme Court and obtained by Global News showed that Telechea disrupted the staff with the point of calling the police.
“It ruined several nights of sleep thereafter by looking at him from a third -party point of view and understanding how closer I got,” said Singh.
In a few weeks, the chief investigations for the British Columbia police guard was not only erased Singh – but congratulated his actions in a letter obtained by Global News.
“This investigation revealed … the SGT. Singh’s courageous perseverance resisted the uninsured attack which finally forced him to use the deadly force, “said Trent Rolfe of IIOBC in a letter of September 15, 2021 to the chief of vice-president Adam Palmer.
Rolfe said the incident was a reminder of the unpredictable dangers of the police profession.
“Sgt. Singh did not put any threats in his approach to Mr. Telechea, but was immediately attacked and disarmed by his stick, then attacked with him, “he wrote. “The director of the hotel and the security guard had fled for security, but too, as well as agents who responded, would have been very risky if the SGT. Singh did not play when he did. »»
After Telechea was sentenced to two years less a day in prison following his guilty pleas of assault serious and disarmament, a peace agent, the civil director of IIOBC also justified the use of Singh potentially deadly forcibly.
“There was a very real risk that the officer (Sgt. Singh) was about to undergo bodily lesions or serious death,” wrote Jessica Berglund in a public report published on December 5, 2024. “Moreover , since the (suspect) had already taken the stick (from the officer) of him, it is possible that (he) was also able to take the pistol (sgt. Singh), if he had could make him unconscious or otherwise unable to resist.
“Unfortunately, I went from how I can help this person try to kill me or hurt someone,” Singh told Global News.
The 22 -year -old veteran said he would never be the same person she was before the attack.
“My head hurt me for eight months where I was hit several times with the stick,” recalls Singh, who suffered from three broken bones in the left hand, and facial injuries, in the back and knee.
Singh underwent three surgeries and ended up with a permanent pin in his hand where one of the bones had calcified.
After 400 therapy meetings, he is still physically and emotionally injured.
“My hand will never be 100% of what it was before, and mentally, I will not trust people,” said Singh.
Now 63 years old and near retirement, Singh learned that recovery takes time.
His Golden Retrievers Ellie and Booker, who knew that something was wrong and wanted to help in the days that followed the attack, now provide the distraction he needs at home.
“These are my unofficial therapy dogs,” Singh told Global News.
As difficult as for him to relive what happened, Singh estimated that it was important to share his story.
“It is a very disturbing experience, it was a very humiliating experience, it was a very frightening experience and I think there must be an appreciation for what the police are going through every day.”
Tuesday, Global News will deepen Telechea and the penalty he received for the attack.