Vancouver dad stabbed to death outside Starbucks after asking man not to vape near his child

By Edward Era Barbacena

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. “I’m angry and I’m sad.”

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.

“He had a knife,” she said. “I don’t carry a knife into a coffee shop, do you?”

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.”

“Paul was a great guy and a hard worker,” said Sean Collings, operations manager of Jiffy Move, a moving company in Burnaby where Schmidt had worked for at least five years. “He was a devoted husband and father.”

Collings said the death has hit the 200 to 300 people who work for moving companies in Metro hard because they all know one another. Movers were discussing Schmidt, who was 37, on a social media platform they belong to.

He said Schmidt worked five days a week at the physically demanding job and his was the only income supporting his family.

Paul’s website include many photos of his young family and in his intro to the page, he had written: “I love Ashley and Erica Schmidt.”

A police officer on patrol was flagged down near the café at around 5:40 p.m. on Sunday, said Vancouver Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Addison.

The officer arrested a suspect inside the Starbucks who did not resist, he said.

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

Family members posted pleas to Paul’s Facebook page for people to not watch or re-post the graphic video.

“Someone took my brother’s life yesterday and another person filmed it (do NOT watch) instead of calling the police, and worse off, posted it on social media very clearly for views,” posted Jessica Foxx Foto, who said Paul was her stepbrother.

She called the video “incredibly traumatizing” and urged the poster to remove it.

The Vancouver Police and Mayor Ken Sim were among those tweeting to ask people to not post or repost the video.

“Our hearts go out to Mr. Schmidt and his family -— out of respect for them and their loss, please refrain from sharing graphic images or videos of the incident on social media,” Sim said on Twitter.

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.