A man who fatally stabbed one woman and wounded another during a violent and random attack aboard a TTC subway train in December 2022 has been sentenced to life in prison.
Neng Jia Jin previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the stabbing death of 31-year-old Vanessa Kurpiewska and the attempted murder of another woman on the afternoon of Dec. 8, 2022.
“Two innocent women were intentionally and violently attacked… as they went about an otherwise normal day on public transit,” Superior Court Justice Joan Barrett wrote in her reasons for sentence released on Tuesday.
“Society needs to be protected from Mr. Jin and others who are like-minded who used the public transit system to pray on unsuspecting victims.”
The judge wrote that Jin left his Scarborough home that morning with knives in his backpack “intent on killing people.”
According to the court documents, his movements that day were well documented on video surveillance footage. From the moment he left his Scarborough home and boarded a TTC bus shortly after 11 a.m. that day, Jin was captured on video closely watching female TTC passengers.
The judge pointed to one incident at Royal York Station shortly before 12:30 p.m., where Jin was seen following a woman as she entered the subway station and boarded a train. When she became aware that she was being watched, she quickly hopped off, leaving Jin on the train as it departed the station, the judge said.
Later that afternoon, Jin was seen boarding an eastbound train at Islington Station. The two victims were also passengers on that train.
At one point, Jin moved to the doorway of the vehicle, standing directly beside the area where Kurpiewska was quietly sitting in her seat. He pulled out the two knives from his backpack, and began lunging at the victim, the judge said.
Seconds later, according to the court documents, he spotted another woman sitting in the corner by herself and lunged at her, unsuccessfully attempting to stab her in the head four times. A Good Samaritan stepped in and began kicking Jin, eventually disarming him. The second woman was able to escape and the Good Samaritan blocked Jin in the corner of the train until police arrived to arrest him.
Kurpiewska, who suffered three stab wounds to her chest, was pronounced dead shortly after she arrived at St. Michael’s Hospital. The second woman was stabbed in her abdomen, left forearm, right hand, and left leg. A tendon in her right ring finger was cut and required plastic surgery, the judge noted.
‘A chilling effect’
According to the court documents, Jin, who had poor vision and had undergone eye surgeries years earlier, later told police that he “made a plan to kill people” as an act of “revenge” when he woke up and discovered he “could barely see.” He said he had initially planned to kill people on the bus but went to the subway instead where the lighting was better.
In a victim impact statement submitted by Kurpiewska’s family, they described the unbearable loss they have suffered. They described Kurpiewska as a happy, independent, and kind person who defied the odds when she was told she would never walk after being diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
The surviving victim, a mother of two, said the physical, emotional, and psychological impact of the incident has been significant, adding that she has difficulty with her arms and has numbness in her fingers. She said while she continues to use public transit out of necessity, she is forced to relieve the trauma when she does.
“Mr. Jin was consumed with his own anger and despair over his failing vision. He sought revenge on random vulnerable strangers who were defenseless to his brutal attack,” the judge wrote.
“The ripple effects of such acts of violence on the community at large are extremely aggravating. The senseless violent attack of an innocent stranger undoubtedly has a chilling effect on all commuters and transit workers, who undoubtedly now fear for their own safety when using public transit.”
Jin was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for 25 years for the murder of Kurpiewska. A concurrent sentence of 20 years was handed down for the attempted murder of the surviving victim.
