Former University of Waterloo student pleads guilty to 4 charges in connection to classroom stabbing

A 24-year-old former University of Waterloo student has pleaded guilty to four charges in connection to an on-campus classroom stabbing last June.

Geovanny Villalba-Aleman appeared in the Kitchener, Ont., courtroom in person on Monday morning.

He pleaded guilty to:

• Two charges of aggravated assault.

• One charge of assault causing bodily harm.

• One charge of assault with a weapon.

Two students and an instructor were stabbed on the university campus in Hagey Hall on June 2023 during a gender-studies class. Police called it "a hate-motivated incident related to gender expression and gender identity."

In addition to attempted murder, Villalba-Aleman had been charged with mischief and also faced terrorism charges.

Members of the Waterloo Regional Police Service investigated the stabbing in June 2023 inside Hagey Hall at the University of Waterloo. (Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press)

Serious injuries

About 40 students were inside the classroom at the time of the stabbings.

A 38-year-old female associate professor from Kitchener and two students — a 20-year-old female and a 19-year-old male, both from Waterloo — were taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said a man who was not a member of the class entered around 3:30 p.m. ET on June 28 and spoke with the professor before attacking her with two knives.

Police said while students were attempting to escape, two students were stabbed and there was an attempt to stab a third student.

Officials from the University of Waterloo said the in-house emergency alert system didn't work as expected after the stabbings, adding the WatSAFE app had sent an alert to students 90 minutes after the incident.