Man gets 7-year sentence for Edmonton LRT stabbing, his 4th violent offence on transit

The man who fatally stabbed a stranger outside Edmonton's Belvedere LRT station has been handed a seven-year prison sentence — his latest conviction for violence on public transit.

Jamal Wheeler, 29, pleaded guilty last year to manslaughter in the July 9, 2023 killing of Rukinisha Nkundabatware.

He'd never met Nkundabatware before, apart from a brief altercation inside the station, minutes earlier.

The 52-year-old father, who came to Canada as a refugee from Congo, took the train to Belvedere to meet a friend. Video played in court Monday shows Wheeler coming toward the two men across the transit centre bus loop and stabbing the victim.

Nkundabatware ran across the street and collapsed, where he died from a single wound to the chest.

"This was a completely unprovoked attack on a stranger," Crown prosecutor Shivani Naidu-Barrett said Monday.

"You saw how the victim was walking across the street on his own. There was no threat by him, and Mr. Wheeler just comes up and stabs him."

With enhanced credit for the past two years Wheeler has already spent in custody, his time behind bars is reduced to about 4½ years.

This is Wheeler's fourth time being sentenced for a violent incident in Edmonton's transit system.

In 2016, armed with an axe, he robbed a stranger at a west Edmonton transit centre. He also punched a man on the Belvedere LRT train platform, sending him falling to the tracks.

The following year, after a jail sentence for those offences, he used bear spray on three bystanders at a southeast bus terminal. At the time, he was under release conditions barring him from Edmonton transit property.

Wheeler also has other convictions related to violence and weapons on his record. But Naidu-Barrett said his history of targeting transit users is especially aggravating when it comes to the latest attack, which prompted an outcry about safety issues in the city's transit system and public spaces.

Court of King's Bench Justice Kent Teskey addressed Wheeler directly throughout parts of his decision.

"When people have to look over their shoulder and think: Is this person just going to work or is this person going to throw a punch? ... That has an impact on the whole community."

'This is not the first time'

Several of Nkundabatware's children watched the sentencing process in the courtroom.

One of his sons, David Nkundabatware, wrote in a victim impact statement that he avoids the LRT and the transit station where the attack happened.

"I now live in constant fear," he said.

"We lost not just a loved one, but also a source of support, guidance and strength. His killing has left a permanent scar on our lives."

Defence lawyer Tariq Salloum told the court that Wheeler's actions have to be considered in the context of his upbringing in "trauma, addiction and chaos."

Wheeler was diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and ADHD as a child, with an assessment at the time calling him "impervious to the consequences of his actions" and impulsive.

Court heard he was separated from his parents at a young age and raised without meaningful connection to his Métis heritage, ultimately dropping out of school in Grade 9 and beginning a lifelong struggle with drug addiction at 15.

Acts of violence on public transit aren't exclusive to Wheeler, Salloum said.

"That may speak to our issues with regards to dealing with people like Mr. Wheeler, when we don't have safe housing for them, we don't have proper addictions resources. They don't have anywhere else to be other than transit," he said.

Before he was sentenced, Wheeler apologized in court for his actions.

"I deeply regret what happened," he said.

Salloum argued for a sentence of five to six years, while the Crown said seven to nine years is the appropriate range.

Teskey ultimately landed on seven years, saying the sentence has to reflect both Wheeler's background and a message about the community's right to feel safe in public spaces.

"Where I become concerned is this: While you have your background and your FASD, this is not the first time the court has dealt with you with regards to a transit centre," Teskey told Wheeler.

"These are all people in our community that you had an impact on. And the court's dealt with you and tried to reform your behaviour, and it was not successful."

He told Wheeler that he needs to change that pattern.

"Your responsibility, your job, is to take the sentence I have imposed and try to make yourself better so you don't hurt people in the future."