A B.C. man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for his part in a fatal knife attack in a Vancouver waterfront park, an attack witnessed by a family.
“A man retreating from two others was savagely attacked, beaten and stabbed,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker said as she sentenced Eric Gaon Kim, 29, on June 16.
Andrew Wadden, 45, of Vancouver, was stabbed May 7, 2022, just before 10:20 a.m., police said.
Police and emergency medical crews were called and Wadden was found alive with life-threatening injuries. He later died at the scene.
Police initially charged Kim in connection with the incident. Later, David Christian Bentil was also charged with second-degree murder.
Ker called the attack “cowardly, cruel and senseless.”
Dressed in a black suit and white shirt, Kim sat quietly through the proceedings, smiling and waving to family when he entered.
With credit for time served before sentencing, Kim faces 9.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
It’s not Kim’s first time going behind bars. He has already served two terms for robberies — offences Ker called crimes of violence.
She said his time in custody has not been without incident, with periods spent in administrative segregation — or isolation.
The judge said Kim’s moral blameworthiness in the offence was high. She said manslaughter covers a range of near-accident to near-murder. In Kim’s case, she said the offence was at the near-murder end of the spectrum.
She said Kim addressed the court earlier and expressed remorse and apologized for his actions.
Bentil was found guilty by a jury earlier in the year and awaits sentencing in September, Crown prosecutor Brendan McCabe said.
The offence
Ker said the case had been set for a jury trial but Kim entered a guilty plea to manslaughter in October 2024.
She said the offence happened in Crab Park on Vancouver’s waterfront, feet from a family with children.
Ker said Bentil had been having a disagreement with Wadden and the latter began to flee.
Bentil called for Kim’s help and the two began to pursue Wadden.
Kim brought Wadden to the ground and the onslaught with knives began.
Ker said the gravity of the offence was heightened by the fact Wadden was stabbed 16 times, four wounds of which were life-threatening.
“Whatever his circumstances,” Ker said of Wadden, “he did not deserve to die . . . in this brutal fashion.”
Ker said Kim had time to consider his actions and to disengage.
“He did not,” she said.
The court heard Kim has mental health and substance abuse issues.
