‘My world fell apart,’ slain Abbotsford cop’s wife tells court as killer sentenced

The killer of Abbotsford Police Const. John Davidson has been officially sentenced to spend his life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The sentence – a formality given that Oscar Arfmann had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the 2017 killing – was handed down in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster Monday after Davidson’s family delivered victim impact statements.

Arfmann shot Davidson at an Abbotsford shopping centre in November of 2017.

Read our earlier updates below

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The family of Const. John Davidson delivered victim-impact statements Monday during sentencing for the slain Abbotsford police officer’s killer.

Oscar Arfmann will receive an automatic jail sentence of life with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Davidson’s wife, Denise, told the court that her “world fell apart” when she heard her husband had been shot and killed.

She said she was at work on Nov. 6, 2017, when she was summoned by her manager and brought into a conference room, where two officers informed her of her husband’s death.

Her first though was that her husband was playing an elaborate joke. Then, she said, “my world fell apart.”

Denise said she was so consumed by grief that she would have to get dressed in stages and lie down in between. Once during a walk, she sat down in the middle of road because she ran out of energy.

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She said she wakes every morning to a vision of her husband falling to the ground.

But she said attending the trial, and seeing its results, was important.

“Now that the truth has been proven in court, we can walk away knowing that justice has been done … Anything less would have been devastating,” she told the court. “Attending the trial was incredibly difficult, but it was the last thing we could do for John.”

One of Davidson’s daughters, Dina, told the court about her father’s spirit.

“He was the provider of fun on family outings,” she said. “It is so hard to live in a world where Oscar Arfmann exists and my dad does not.”

Watch The News for more on the sentencing hearing.

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From earlier:

Victim-impact statements are expected to be presented in court today (Monday) in the case of Abbotsford cop killer Oscar Arfmann.

Arfmann was convicted on Oct. 10 of the first-degree murder of Abbotsford Police Const. John Davidson on Nov. 6, 2017.

Although a hearing was later expected to be scheduled to determine whether Arfmann, 67, was “not criminally responsible” for the killing, defence lawyer Martin Peters declared on Jan. 13 that there would be no need for such a proceeding.

That meant that Arfmann’s automatic sentence for first-degree murder – life with no chance of parole for 25 years – would stand.

RELATED: Guilty verdict and life sentence stand for Abbotsford cop killer

Today’s hearing in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster is being held so that Davidson’s friends and family can present statements about how the killing has impacted them, and so other procedural matters can be dealt with.

In Justice Carol Ross’s ruling on Oct. 10, she said she had no doubt that Arfmann was the man responsible for killing Davidson in the parking lot of a strip mall on Mt. Lehman Road.

Davidson was the first officer to arrive on the scene after reports were received of Arfmann firing shots at two Fraser Valley Auto Mall employees who confronted him about a vehicle he had stolen from there two days prior.

Davidson was shot twice from behind, including once when he was face-down on the ground.

Arfmann was arrested not far from the scene after police chased him, crashed into the vehicle he was driving and shot at him.

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