The well-dressed business woman — described as “organised, professional, hard working and courteous” — walked casually into a chemist, went straight to her victim and plunged a blade into her chest — a shocking outbreak of violence that police say was “completely unprovoked”.

The victim was shopping and speaking on her phone when the attack occurred.

The December 11 incident has left the victim fighting for her life in hospital while police in Canada’s largest city hunt for Bisesar, who they warn is “violent and dangerous”.

“She stabbed a complete stranger in the heart, putting her in grave condition in the hospital,” Constable David Hopkinson of the Toronto Police Service said It is a dramatic escalation for the Toronto woman who has multiple degrees, works as a financial adviser, and has no criminal background.

At around 3 p.m., Rohinie Bisesar, 40, was taken into custody by police and charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon.

“I’ve seen her for a couple of months,” said Heather Thomas, the assistant manager at a Yonge and King Street Starbucks. “She was very antisocial.”

She said, nearly every day, Bisesar would “come in and always get an ice water or a tall pike coffee and would sit at a laptop turned away from the wall.”

“We knew that something was off because she would stand at the cash and give us a blank stare,” said Thomas.

On occasion, staff would prompt Bisesar to respond and it would take her some time to respond. The same would happen at a Starbucks further up Yonge Street that Thomas said Bisesar also frequented.

At both locations, Thomas said Bisesar never offered details about her personal life or talked with other patrons so they were stunned when police visited the café to ask about the suspect.

“I wouldn’t think she would be involved in a stabbing because she was very private,” Thomas said.

Though police have revealed little about Bisesar, in 2004, she received a Bachelor of Administrative Studies degree and in 2007, a Masters of Business Administration degree, a York University spokesperson confirmed to Torstar.

LinkedIn also indicated she was the chair of the Mentor Lunches sub-committee for Women in Capital Markets.

But a spokeswoman for the Canadian women’s group told Torstar Monday that she was “unable to validate” Bisesar’s position, saying she had not heard of her before.

In one endorsement on the page, York University mathematics and statistics professor Georges Monette said Bisesar was a member of the school’s technical and computing support team.

He did not respond to the Star’s requests for comment, but his post on LinkedIn said, “She was superb both for the outstanding quality of her work and for her warmth and interpersonal skills…She had the intelligence, creativity and ability to work collaboratively that allowed her to find excellent solutions to just about any problem researchers and faculty members would present her with.”