Father Stabbed to Death Outside Vancouver Starbucks After Asking Man to Not Vape Near His Toddler

A confrontation on the patio of a busy downtown Starbucks that ended with the stabbing death of a Burnaby man started when the victim asked the suspect to not vape near his toddler, said the victim’s mother.

“This is so horribly wrong what happened,” said Kathy Schmidt, two days after her son, Paul Stanley Schmidt was stabbed in broad daylight in front of his fiancée and his three-year-old daughter and many onlookers.

“He was just trying to protect his daughter,” she said. {snip}

A man has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing and Schmidt said she would like the charge upped to first-degree murder, which requires proof of premeditation, to ensure a longer stay in prison if he’s convicted.

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Schmidt said her son’s fiancée, Ashley Umali, told her she was inside getting drinks while Paul and daughter Erica in a stroller waited outside the café at Granville and West Pender streets.

“It all started because he was vaping beside the baby. Ashley’s in shock, she watched the whole thing. She’s so devastated.”

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The scene was captured on video and posted online on Instagram and Twitter.

CONTENT WARNING:
Raw footage of a man randomly stabbed and killed in broad daylight in Vancouver. This is what’s happening in cities. pic.twitter.com/xSreMMxJjx

— Angelo Isidorou (@angeloisidorou) March 27, 2023

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A Gofundme page has been set up by the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden to help Paul’s family because the executive director Lorraine Lowe is a friend and neighbour of Ashley’s extended family.

Inderdeep Singh Gosal, 32, has been charged with second-degree murder. He has no other charges listed in provincial court databases.

Investigators do not believe the victim and suspect knew each other.

Schmidt is Vancouver’s sixth homicide victim of 2023.