Court hears details of B.C. security guard's death after man pleads guilty to killing her

A Kelowna, B.C. man has pleaded guilty in the killing of a female security guard from India at the University of B.C. Okanagan campus in 2022.

Dante Ognibene-Hebbourn, 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a Kelowna courtroom Tuesday morning.

He had been charged with second-degree murder in the fatal attack on security guard Harmandeep Kaur on Feb. 26, 2022.

In an agreed statement of facts, Crown lawyer David Grabavac said Ognibene-Hebbourn was working as a custodian and Kaur a security guard on the campus and had known each other before the attack. 

Attack recorded on security cameras

Grabavac described the events recorded on security cameras in a building on campus where the attack occurred just after 5 a.m.

Ognibene-Hebbourn is seen walking through the building with no shirt on, carrying a knife in one hand, he said.

At one point Ognibene-Hebbourn approaches Kaur and kicks her in the torso, Grabavac said, and then throws her to the ground where he repeatedly stomps on her head and face in three attacks over about nine minutes.

Kaur died in hospital the next day of blunt force trauma as a result of the attack, Grabavac said.

Ognibene- Hebbourn was found by another security guard on campus, shirtless and acting in a state of psychosis, he said. He was taken hospital and detained under the Mental Health Act.

In a later interview with RCMP, Ognibene-Hebbourn told a police officer Kaur had witnessed him through a window masturbating, and he didn't want her to tell anyone as he didn't want to be seen as a pervert, Grabavac told the court.

A history of mental health issues

Grabavac said Ognibene-Hebbourn had a history of mental health issues and suicide attempts in the years before the attack.

In September 2021, he had stopped taking injections of prescribed anti-psychotic medication.

The court heard Ognibene-Hebbourn's parents had contacted his medical support worker about a month before the killing to report concerns about his mental health, including talking about death and saying vulgar and nonsensical things.

A Critical Response Team nurse spoke with Ognibene-Hebbourn the day before the attack, Grabavac said.

The nurse called Ognibene-Hebbourn's father and advised him to take his son to Kelowna General Hospital if there were any imminent safety concerns.

A psychiatric report found Ognibene-Hebbourn was "suffering from profound psychosis" when he attacked Kaur, brought on from extreme intoxication from illegal and prescribed drugs, the court heard.

The report found he was criminally responsible at the time of the offence, but his ability to form the intent for murder was likely impaired, Grabavac said.

Ognibenne-Hebbourn was initially charged with second-degree murder, which was later reduced to manslaughter.

Members of Kaur's family have said she came to Canada from India in 2015 and was working at the university to raise money to go back to school to become a paramedic.

She received her permanent residency just weeks before she died.

Several members of Kaur's family were in the courtroom gallery during the sentencing hearing.

'She came to Canada with dreams'

Grabavac read from a victim impact statement her mother Harminder Kaur had written, where she described her daughter as having "a pure heart, a strong spirit and endless love for her family. She was a hard-working, loving daughter."

"She came to Canada with dreams, not only for us, but for her family," the statement read.

Her mother wrote about the grief her family has suffered since her daughter's death, and asked the court to for a sentence to serve as a deterrent so that "no other family has to experience what we are going through."

"Every day since her death, we have lived with unbearable grief.  There is no peace in our home, only silence and sorrow," read the statement.

The judge adjourned the hearing and is expected to deliver a sentence when the hearing resumes on Wednesday.