The associate professor and students victimized by a former student in a stabbing rampage last summer at the University of Waterloo told his sentencing hearing about the nightmares and physical and emotional scars they’ve been living with since the June 2023 attack in a gender-studies class.
Monday was the first day of the week-long hearing in Kitchener, Ont., for Geovanny Villalba Aleman, 25, who pleaded guilty this June to four assault-related charges in the stabbings of two students and Katherine Fulfer, an associate professor, in Hagey Hall in June 2023.
As part of victim impact statements, Fulfer spoke out for the first time about the attack.
Wearing a full-sleeved, light yellow button-down shirt with dark pants and glasses, she told the judge about the light scar visible on her face and the scars on the other parts of her body, including her forearm.
“Some days I would wake up with my face soaked in tears … [thinking of] what I could have done differently,” she said, adding she felt as if she had failed her students.
Fulfer said she hasn’t been able to sleep comfortably and has had repeated nightmares of being stabbed since the attack.
It took over two months for her to feel ready to resume her regular job and volunteer role providing free community meals.
“It was lucky that the weapon used was something I and the others could survive. If a firearm was used, I would likely be dead,” she said, reading her victim impact statement in front of the judge.
She added she’s worried the attack normalizes violence against queer and transgender people.
“I feel worried others may feel emboldened to carry out the same.”
Fulfer said that in the months after the attack, she received hate mail and began to worry about possibly being targeted again. She began to imagine ways she could use everyday items like her laptop and metal water bottle to defend herself.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman has pleaded guilty to:
- Two charges of aggravated assault.
- One charge of assault causing bodily harm.
- One charge of assault with a weapon.
The students who were attacked also wrote victim impact statements, which were read aloud by the Crown lawyers.
In a statement provided to Waterloo regional police, Xinyue Song said she was stabbed four times in her back when she was trying to run away from Villelba-Aleman.
Song’s witness impact statement, which was read aloud in court by assistant Crown attorney Melanie Goodfellow, detailed the emotional impact the attack had on her.
“There have been times where I felt numb about everything,” she wrote. “I felt as if my soul had detached from my body.”
Song wrote about how she did not feel safe going to school or crowded spaces and her repeated nightmares of being ripped apart by a tiger.
Ethan Park told police he was stabbed in his forearm and hand. He said he had thrown his laptop at the attacker and punched him in the torso before running from the classroom.
Park’s victim impact statement said he’s suffering from extreme anxiety now and still has multiple scars that remind him of the day of the attack.
Kali Dunlop told police Villalba-Aleman attempted to stab her a number of times while she ran toward the door. She said he looked at her with a grin on his face during the attack and saw other students trying to hit him with a chair to get him to stop.
“The images of the day are burned into my brain,” Dunlop wrote in her victim impact statement. “I am trying every day to trust again.”
She wrote about how she is now afraid of knives and unable to cook in her kitchen. She said she missed and failed classes because of anxiety and PTSD.
9 letters of support for man who pleaded guilty
Danielle Boland was one of the witnesses of the attack. In her police statement, she said she remembers Fulfer falling into the back left corner of the room behind the desk as Villalba-Aleman stood above her, holding a knife.
“Even encountering a stranger in my apartment building filled me with fear and anxiety,” Boland said in her witness impact statement, adding she now suffers with severe emotional issues she feels will never go away.
There were also two community impact statements from other professors and staff members who said they were worried about their safety following the attack.
The defence revealed there are nine letters of support for Villalba-Aleman that have been translated to English. Those will be reviewed in court sometime this week.