“On Aug. 17, 2021, I was attacked, maimed and feared that I would be killed,” VPD Sgt. Anil Singh said as he read his victim impact statement to Global News during a recent interview.
Three and a half years after he was viciously assaulted while responding to a call in downtown Vancouver, the patrol officer became emotional reciting his own words.
“It’s amazing how it just sneaks up on you,” Singh said as he fought back tears recalling the events that left him with serious lifelong injuries. “It’s disturbing to think about.”
Singh was on patrol on Aug. 7, 2021, when around 5:30 a.m., the Vancouver Police Department received a complaint from staff at the GEC Hotel – about an unwanted male sleeping in the lobby of 718 Drake Street.
According to the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIOBC), the man, later identified as Carlo Telechea, had urinated outside and was subsequently confronted by hotel security.
Telechea sought entry into the hotel and when the female security guard refused him, he walked in the unlocked front door.
The events that unfolded inside the lobby were captured on CCTV.
Minutes later, Singh was the first officer to arrive at the call, and he expected he would be redirecting someone with no place to go – to a nearby cooling shelter.
“I thought this is something that I can go do and help somebody,” Singh recalled in an interview with Global News.
He walked into the lobby, where the hotel manager and security guard pointed out Telechea, who had laid down on a couch and appeared to be asleep.
Singh said he identified himself as a police officer and asked the man to wake up.
When he didn’t respond to his verbal commands, Singh tugged his ear.
“The minute I went to wake him up, the fight was on,” Singh said.
Telechea immediately leaped to his feet and lunged at Singh, charging forward and punching the officer in the head repeatedly.
“He was deliberate, he was specific, and I thought he was going to kill me,” recalled Singh.
Singh backed up and drew his baton in an attempt to block Telechea’s hits, while yelling, “I’m police, I’m police.”
“Every time I tried to get distance, he just kept advancing and kept striking,” said Singh, who was ultimately thrown to the floor.
Telechea continued to attack, punching, kicking and kneeing Singh before wrenching the baton free from the officer’s grasp.
At that point, Singh said, his attacker began swinging the baton like a baseball bat at his head.
The officer tried to use his left hand to shield his head, while shouting “Stop, stop!.”
Meantime, the hotel manager and security guard ran into the office and locked the door.
“When I’m down on my knees, I’m thinking this next blow is going to kill me,” said Singh as he recalled being clubbed with his own baton.
For the first time in his career, the sergeant was forced to fire his service pistol.
“Nothing happened after the first shot,” said Singh. “After the second shot, he dropped the baton and to me, the threat is over. For me now, as contradictory as it seems, it’s now about rendering aid to the person that tried to kill me.”
Telechea fell to the ground, wounded in the arm, leg, hip and groin area, according to the IIOBC.
At the same time, two back up officers arrived on scene, taking Singh’s attacker into custody and requesting paramedics.
Only 48 seconds had passed since Singh arrived in the hotel lobby.
“If I hadn’t used my sidearm, I’d be dead and I wouldn’t be here today,” Singh told Global News. “For weeks after, it’s what did I do wrong, how do I go from wanting to help somebody to get to a cooling shelter, to having to shoot them twice.”
Once he viewed the hotel surveillance of the entire incident, Singh said he started to gain a better understanding of what he walked into.
“There’s an entire sequence of events leading up to him laying in wait to ambush me,” he told Global News.
Singh didn’t realize what had transpired before he arrived, and said if he did, his approach would have been completely different.
“I didn’t know that this guy had terrorized the two employees, that he had gone into the lobby, he confronted them, he urinated all over the lobby and then when police were called, he intentionally went and laid down to pretend he was asleep.”
It took seven months before Singh could return to active duty.
Video surveillance entered as exhibits in BC Supreme Court and obtained by Global News showed Telechea belligerently disrupting staff to the point they called the police.
“It ruined many nights of sleep afterwards actually watching it from a third-party point of view and understanding how close I came to dying,” Singh said.
Within weeks, the chief of investigations for B.C.’s police watchdog not only cleared Singh – but commended his actions, in a letter obtained by Global News.
“This investigation revealed…Sgt. Singh’s courageous perseverance withstanding the unprovoked attack that ultimately required him to employ lethal force,” stated the IIOBC’s Trent Rolfe in a Sept. 15, 2021 letter to VPD Chief Constable Adam Palmer.
Rolfe said the incident was a reminder of the unpredictable dangers of the policing profession.
“Sgt. Singh posed no threat in his approach to Mr. Telechea, but was immediately attacked and disarmed of his baton, and then assaulted with it,” he wrote. “The hotel manager and security guard had fled for safety, however they too, as well as responding officers, would have been at great risk had Sgt. Singh not acted when he did.”
After Telechea was sentenced to two years less a day in jail following his guilty pleas to aggravated assault and disarming a peace officer, the IIOBC’s chief civilian director further justified Singh’s use of potentially lethal force.
“There was a very real risk that the officer(Sgt. Singh) was about to suffer grievous bodily harm or death,” wrote Jessica Berglund in a public report released on Dec. 5, 2024. “Further, given that the (suspect) had already taken the (officer’s) baton from him, it is possible that (he) could have taken (Sgt. Singh’s) pistol too, if he had been able to render him unconscious or otherwise unable to resist.”
“Sadly, I’ve gone from how do I help this person to are they going to try and kill me or hurt somebody,” Singh told Global News.
The 22-year veteran of the force said he’ll never be the same person he was prior to the attack.
“My head hurt for eight months from where I got struck with the baton multiple times,” recalled Singh, who suffered three broken bones in his left hand, and injuries to his face, back and knees.
Singh underwent three surgeries and was left with a permanent pin in his hand where one of the bones had calcified.
Following some 400 therapy appointments, he’s still physically and emotionally wounded.
“My hand will never be 100 per cent of what it was before, and mentally I’m just not going to trust people,” said Singh.
Now 63 and close to retirement, Singh has learned recovery takes time.
His Golden retrievers Ellie and Booker, who knew something was wrong and wanted to help in the days following the attack, now provide the distraction he needs at home.
“They are my unofficial therapy dogs”, Singh told Global News.
As difficult as it is for him to relive what happened, Singh felt it was important to share his story.
“It’s a very disturbing experience, it was a very humbling experience, it was a very frightening experience and I think there needs to be an appreciation for what police officers go through and face every day.”
On Tuesday, Global News will be delving deeper into Telechea and the sentence he received for the attack.