Road rage victim speaks about attack

Jude Grace of Surrey was heading to Coquitlam on the afternoon of Nov. 5 around 5 p.m. to pick up a friend when another car cut him off in an intersection at the top of a hill in Whalley.

The 32-year-old Grace honked his horn.

The other car ended up behind him and tail-gated Grace all the way to the bottom of the hill.

Grace tapped his brakes to get him to back off.

“Pull over!” the other driver shouted.

Grace shouted back, telling the other man what he could do and what he thought of him in highly colorful language.

Then the driver tried to cut him off again.

“This guy’s a nut,” Grace thought.

He tried to shake his pursuer off by moving into an intersection as though he was going to proceed straight ahead, then turning at the last minute.

It didn’t work.

The other vehicle drove over a median to get at Grace, forcing his smaller car to the side of the road near 104 Avenue and Scott Road.

As he saw the other driver get out and head for his car, Grace braced himself for a confrontation.

He didn’t see the knife until the other man stabbed him several times through Grace’s open driver side window.

The attacker didn’t say a word.

The rapid, slashing assault cut two fingers of Grace’s left hand to the bone, and punctured his left bicep and his lower torso.

A stunned Grace was still in the car when the attacker left, bending his licence plate to prevent witnesses from recording the number.

“Someone call 911,” Grace told onlookers. “I’ve been stabbed four times.”

He was bleeding heavily.

The injuries didn’t really start to hurt until Grace was in hospital and a doctor was trying to sew his mangled hand back together.

His injuries required about 50 stitches.

A surgeon had to open one finger up again this week to reattach a severed nerve.

The denturist says it may be four to six months before his hand has recovered enough for him to resume his job, which requires a precise touch.

He’s hoping telling his story will lead to an arrest.

“Someone knows something.”

A police sketch of the road rage suspect shows a clean-shaven Caucasian man, 24 to 26 years old, 5’9” with short dirty-blond hair and blue eyes.

Witnesses said the man with the knife was driving a newer model four-door white Honda or Acura.

The car has damage to the passenger side rear corner panel. A woman with long brown hair tied back was riding in the car.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Surrey RCMP Major Crime Unit at 604 599-0502 or if you wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.