Off-duty police officer stabbed in village attack By Andy Stonehouse Whistler residents were shocked by news of a brutal attack against an off-duty police officer over the weekend, as a random post-bar fight left the victim with a broken nose and more than 100 stitches to help heal knife cuts across his head and body. Tam Bui, a member of the Stl'Atl'lmx Tribal Police in Mount Currie, was in the village in the early hours of June 27 when he was accosted by another party, resulting in a verbal altercation. Whistler RCMP Corp. David Fee said Bui and an acquaintance were walking past the Tyndall Stone Lodge on their way to a village condo when Whistler resident Shem William Trotman, 27, allegedly got into a fight with Bui. Trotman allegedly brandished a small X-Acto-styled knife and proceeded to slash Bui. Fee said Trotman apparently left the scene and was arrested and taken into custody about an hour after the attack. Bui required 127 stitches to his arms and head and was left with a broken nose and black eyes, but sustained no permanent injuries. Trotman was scheduled to make a court appearance on June 29 but has been remanded until next week. Fee said he would like to believe that the unusually violent incident will not signal a change for Whistler's usually safe surroundings. "I'm hoping this is just an isolated event — Whistler's definitely not like that normally," he said. In an unusual but definitely more happy turn of events following the weekend incident, Bui and his fiancee, Samantha Richardson, decided to push their wedding date up a few months and hold an impromptu ceremony at Lost Lake on Monday afternoon. Bui and Richardson were accompanied to the altar by two Pemberton RCMP officers wearing red serge, in a ceremony attended by most local police and members of the Tribal Police force. "We had planned to go to Cuba and get married in the fall, but recent events got us thinking," Bui said. "I asked when she wanted to get married and she said right now, so we rushed around and got a marriage license and made arrangements to get married at Lost Lake." Bui said he had actually been out on the night of attack celebrating his recent transfer to the Victoria Police Department, a job which he was supposed to have begun on June 29. He took up the new post on July 2.
