Rescued hostage reunites with people who saved her life

By Lethbridge Herald on September 23, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Hostage-taking survivor Kathryn Linder speaks to the City of Lethbridge's Meagan Williams, unseen, while Lethbridge Police Service Staff Sergeant Leon Borbandy listens at the downtown fire station as Linder met all those who helped to save her life after the July incident at Lethbridge Legal Guidance.

Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald
abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Months following her rescue after being stabbed and seriously injured during a hostage-taking downtown, Kathryn Linder on Friday reunited with the emergency responders, police and hospital staff who saved her life.

Linder was stabbed multiple times in the neck by a woman who held her hostage in an office at Lethbridge Legal Guidance in mid July.

40-year-old Courtney Louise Shaw of Lethbridge is facing charges after the matter which had a block of downtown Lethbridge cordoned off as police dealt with the situation.

Among those who Linder had the opportunity to meet were the paramedics who rushed her to hospital, respiratory therapists and other medical staff at Chinook Regional Hospital as well as police including Staff Sergeant and incident commander Leon Borbandy who was among officials talking to media on Friday.

Linder, the community program manager at Lethbridge Legal Guidance, recounted her experiences, telling media about a distraught client who came into the Lethbridge Legal Guidance office demanding to speak to a particular lawyer.

When the perpetrator barricaded the door Linder felt things weren’t going to go as she had expected.

Linder said by speaking firmly and calmly, staff are usually able to de-escalate situations with upset clients.

“That was not the case with her; she’d already made up her mind,” said Linder.

When the perpetrator pointed a gun, identified later as an Airsoft air pistol, at her and told Linder to get on her knees and turn around, Linder thought to herself she just wanted to go home.

“I said to her ‘you don’t want to do this.’ She said it again and I stood up a little straighter and thought you know what if you’re going to hurt me, you’ll look me in the eye, you’re going to face me. Whatever come what may, I can’t stop it,” she recalled.

The perpetrator then attacked Linder who tried to fight her off, she said.

“As soon as I screamed ‘somebody help me,” I heard a bang on the door and the officers were there.

“Now I’ve got faces, at the time just hands and voices.”

Linder said she appreciated the chance to meet those who helped her.

“I’m so grateful that I could be here. It’s a little overwhelming for me . . .it’s such a wonderful opportunity to say thank you to everybody who had a part in saving my life. 

“I would not be standing here, my kids would have lost their mother. It’s absolutely overwhelming the outpouring of concern I’ve had in the last six weeks,” Linder said.

Linder said she is recovering “remarkably quick” and is blessed it’s going that well.

She is still off work and hasn’t decided whether she will go back. 

Thoughts of retirement that started a couple of years ago have sped up, she said.

Borbandy said patrol officers were supported by other officers who responded immediately to the matter and tried to make sense of a chaotic situation. Police then started communications as soon as possible inside.

“My role is to support them through this event, he said.

Borbandy said the situation was the first of its kind in his 26 years with the Lethbridge Police Service.

“We train for this, we train regularly” and are well-trained for such situations, he said.

“We always prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Borbandy added.

He said to meet Linder “is very powerful. We’re very grateful to be here. Getting to meet Kathryn and seeing her strength is great.”

Firefighter/paramedic Tyler Skauge and his partner were on scene during the hostage situation and took care of Linder after she was rescued by LPS.

“We had not a lot of information. We just knew there was a possible hostage situation.” The two arrived on scene after a call from LPS. Skauge said police had taken measures to control Linder’s bleeding and “they did a great job.”

Police said in a press conference the day after the matter that the accused had entered Lethbridge Legal Guidance on the 400 block of 5 St. S and four employees were present when she asked to speak to a specific lawyer.

Police negotiated for about one hour and at 3 p.m. due to an imminent threat to Linder’s life, police entered the building.

In an interview with the Herald this summer, Linder said she recalled being taken into hospital with a person covering her neck with a hand and going into the operating room and thinking she’d get patched up and be out in a couple of days.

“I know I was praying through the whole thing.”

Linder told The Herald in that interview she was 95 per cent sure she performed her captor’s initial intake. Because she sits at the front counter, Linder is the first contact with everyone who comes in.

Linder, who isn’t familiar with guns, said she thought the air pistol the woman carried was a small handgun.

Linder, who served in a journalism practicum here at The Herald in the early 2000s, said perhaps her training kicked into gear and she remembered everything that transpired.

“Because I trained as a journalist, I write just for fun, some part of me wanted to hang onto all these details and I don’t know if that helped me get through it or if it was just my way of coping,” she said from her home in Coaldale.

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