Canada: Muslim student admits trying to kill woman after ‘listening to the Koran’

Source: ‘I was not aware of what I was doing at the time,’ says UBC attempted murder suspect – British Columbia – CBC News h/t Jihad Watch

Saudi Muslim who tried to behead student

A videotaped interview between an RCMP officer and Thamer Hameed Almestadi was played during his trial in relation to the 2016 attack on Mary Hale at an on-campus dorm.

The man charged with attempted murder in an attack at UBC last year admitted that he tried to kill the victim, but added that he didn’t know what he was doing during the incident.

“I tried to kill her,” Thamer Hameed Almestadi admitted in a videotaped interview with RCMP Sgt. Kevin Jeffrey.

“I was not aware of what I was doing at the time,” he added.

Almestadi has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon in the 2016 attack that left Mary Hare with serious injuries, including a five-inch-long cut to her throat.

In the hours-long interview that was played in court during day two of Almestadi’s trial, the UBC student was at times crying and remorseful, asking the officer if the victim was going to survive.

“Tell her I’m sorry …Tell her I made a mistake … I didn’t even know why her,” he said.

The international student from Saudi Arabia said that he hadn’t slept the night before the attack at UBC’s Salish House and was feeling overwhelmed by school work in the weeks leading up to the incident.

“I am so behind in school … I can’t get focused in school.”

Mary Hare was attacked by Saudi Muslim with a knife in her dorm room at UBC last year. The trial in the attempted murder case began at B.C. Supreme Court Tuesday. (CBC News )

When asked by Sgt. Jeffrey why he might have attacked Mary Hare with a knife Almestadi said, “I started listening to the Koran and understanding the meanings differently.”

“If you read something and your mind is thinking something else, you understand differently.”

Almestadi — who was 18 at the time of the incident — said he even began seeing things that weren’t real.

“At that point I thought Mary was the devil,” he said.