‘Kill God, kill yourself:’ Mentally ill Kelowna man stabbed cop in eye, asked to be shot

It was shortly before midnight when Kelowna RCMP Const. Jason Tymofichuk responded to what he called a “fairly routine” call from a supportive housing unit.

A homeless woman was trying to put her tent up in the parking lot of Ellis Place Supportive Housing and refused to leave when asked by staff.

The staff member had told police that a resident of Ellis Place, Richard Brant McCrae, was with the woman and he’d “roared” at them and clenched his fists.

McCrae is 6’2″, weighs 250 lb., and has schizophrenia.

The considerably leaner Const. Tymofichuk, who is 5’7″ and weighs 160 lb., arrived at Ellis Place and spoke to McCrae who he found “polite, respectful and cordial.”

McCrae said the woman had left and the officer said he’d just check inside the tent.

But as he went to check, everything changed.

“Mr. McCrae kicked Const. Tymofichuk in the stomach and delivered a hard blow to the right side of his face, knocking him to the ground,” BC Supreme Court Justice Steven Wilson said in a July 28 written decision.

Const. Tymofichuk was lying on his back and saw McCrae had a knife in his hand. He then realized he’d been stabbed in the eye socket.

“Mr. McCrae continued to swing the knife in the direction of Const. Tymofichuk’s face and made contact. Constable Tymofichuk did his best to block the knife and he engaged his emergency police radio button. Constable Tymofichuk noticed his right eye was clouding over and as he was lying on his back, Mr. McCrae came down on top of him,” Justice Wilson said. “After a second strike hit his face, Const. Tymofichuk drew his pistol and fired a shot while on his back. Mr. McCrae jumped to the side and grabbed for the pistol.”

The officer had his right hand on his gun, but McCrae had both his hands over it.

“Const. Tymofichuk could not shoot again because he was unable to move his hand in Mr. McCrae’s grasp. He started to scream, ‘help me, somebody help me.’ The struggle continued and Const. Tymofichuk tried to use his left hand to deliver strikes but every time he let go with his left hand, he felt Mr. McCrae was starting to overpower him in grabbing the pistol. He wrapped his legs around Mr. McCrae and the hands with the pistol and Mr. McCrae lifted him off the ground. They rolled on the ground as they struggled for control of the pistol,” the Justice said.

Const. Tymofichuk heard McCrae ask for his gun and for the officer to shoot him.

“Const. Tymofichuk says that Mr. McCrae forced the barrel so that it was pointing at him and he believed that Mr. McCrae’s intention was to shoot him,” the decision read.

At this point, one of the residents at Ellis Place, whose name isn’t given, left the building and saw the altercation.

“(He) knew the officer was in trouble, and he went to try to get Mr. McCrae’s attention… He got within about a foot-and-a-half away, and called ‘Richard, let him go!’ multiple times, which caused Mr. McCrae to pause, and gave Const. Tymofichuk sufficient time to get back on his feet and keep his pistol,” the justice said.

Justice Wilson said if it wasn’t for the unnamed resident’s “brave and timely intervention”, things would have likely gotten a lot worse, for both men.

Const. Tymofichuk managed to put about six feet between himself and McCrae and realized he had a significant injury to his eye. While he couldn’t see out of it, he noticed that he was covered in blood.

The officer shouted at McCrae to drop the knife and then Tasered him.

“McCrae flinched and started to walk away,” the Justice said.

He then noticed that McCrae was slashing his own neck with his knife.

More police arrived and saw their colleague pointing his gun at McCrae. Two officers Tasered McCrae to no avail. A third officer’s Taser took McCrae to the ground, and after a kick to the face, McCrae was eventually put in handcuffs.

McCrae and Const. Tymofichuk were both taken to Kelowna General Hospital.

McCrae was later charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, attempting to take a weapon, resisting arrest and possessing a knife for a dangerous purpose.

He pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers argued he was not criminally responsible because of his mental disorder. 

During the 12-day trial numerous psychiatrists who had assessed McCrae testified.

The decision said the 42-year-old was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 10 years ago, but has a lengthy history of hearing voices dating back to being a teenager.

“McCrae has both auditory and visual hallucinations. At times when he is talking, he hears different people’s voices. He would hear things like, ‘kill God,’ ‘kill yourself,'” the Justice said.

In his 20s, the voices got worse and in his 30s, he began seeing things. 

“An example of a visual hallucination is stepping off a bus and into a cartoon,” the Justice said. “The voices he hears can be angels, demons, celebrities, or spirits. The demonic voices try to trick and confuse him. He has punched himself in the head to try to get them out. The more emotional he is, the more he gets possessed.”

The decision said he has little memory of the day he attacked the police officer saying the voices “took over” and he had no control.

“He cannot stop the voices but he tries to take control. He tries to control the voices because he knows they are wrong and he knows the voices are not supposed to be there. They are not there all the time and he knows that those voices are not okay,” the decision read.

He remembers a short conversation with the officer but then it went “blurry” from there.

“I basically blacked out,” he told the court saying he only had vague memories of being in the hospital afterwards.

McCrae’s lawyer argued at the moment of the stabbing, he was in an acute state of psychosis, overwhelmed by the voices, and he’d lost contact with reality and had no free will.

The Crown argued that his psychosis was not at a level that deprived him of knowing what he was doing and that it was wrong.

Justice Wilson found numerous contradictions in McCrae’s testimony and in information he’d given different psychiatrists.

“Which tends to undermine the suggestion that he was psychotic to the point of not having the capacity to distinguish right from wrong,” the Justice said.

The Justice said some of McCrae’s comments to a psychiatrist suggested he knew what was happening and was contemplating a potential defence.

“The theory that Mr. McCrae entered into a state of acute psychosis coinciding with a loss in memory is significantly undermined by his comments to (the psychiatrist) shortly after the attack. Mr. McCrae’s version of events, while untrue, establish that he understood the facts or the events that had taken place sufficiently to draw on them to create a potential defence or explanation for his actions,” the Justice said.

Ultimately, the Justice found that McCrae’s actions were not a result of an acute psychosis, even though he was clearly suffering from a mental disorder.

Justice Wilson dismissed the claim of not criminally responsible and found him guilty of aggravated assault, attempting to disarm a police officer and willfully obstructing a police officer.

The Justice said while there was “no doubt” that McCrae’s actions could have killed Const. Tymofichuk, the evidence didn’t show that he had the specific intention to kill him, and he was found not guilty of attempted murder.

McCrae remains in custody and will be sentenced at a later date.