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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Woman fends off hatchet attack

By: Gabrielle Giroday

13/04/2009 9:10 PM | Comments: 37

A Winnipeg police officer carries a hatchet seized following an apparent robbery Monday morning downtown.

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A Winnipeg police officer carries a hatchet seized following an apparent robbery Monday morning downtown. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Passersby jumped in to help a woman fend off a hatchet-wielding girl on a downtown street Monday morning.

The Crosstown Civic Credit Union loans administration officer — whom her boss declined to identify in an interview with the Free Press — was on the last few steps of her walk from the bus stop to her work on Donald Street near St. Mary Avenue at about 8:30 a.m. when she was accosted by teenage girls.

A police spokesman said the woman was taken to hospital in stable condition.

He said six girls were in police custody later Monday in connection with the incident.

The girls walked behind the woman and threatened to take her purse. In the scuffle, the woman was hit in the head with the hatchet. Two people passing by jumped in to help her as she struggled to take the hatchet away from one of the teenage girls.

One of the women’s co-workers intervened. As well, a man driving by — a reluctant hero who would only give his name as Gilbert — pulled his car over and jumped into the fray.

Crosstown Civic branch manager Herb Neufeld, the woman’s boss, said the entire incident occurred less than 10 metres from the front door of the credit union at 171 Donald St.

"It’s a wake-up call to be alert to your surroundings," said Neufeld. "It’s pretty shocking this kind of thing can happen in broad daylight."

The injured woman sat down on the credit union’s steps and witnesses and co-workers called police and ambulance.

As she was loaded into the ambulance later, she waved at her helpers, Neufeld said. That and her resilience in the fight didn’t surprise him.

"She is by her nature very feisty," he said.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

 

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37 Commentscomment icon

I'm curious what the resident use of force and policing expert HailEris would have done in this situation.

Would he have called the hated police? No because he clearly knows more than them. Just ask him.

Thanks for posting, you're always good for a laugh.

Dogger has the right idea......sort of. The vigilante part, not necessarily unless you want to sit in the cell with them. The standing up for yourself part and the passerbys jumping in to help part is what I am talking about. If the thugs and gangs in the city knew that if they tried something on an innocent person in broad daylight and 20 people in their cars and 20 people off the street suddenly came running to help the innocent victim, they would think twice. Remember flight 93 when the passengers took down the hi-jackers?? We can not let apathy and fear control our lives. If you want to do something, act or speak up, don't just walk or drive by and pretend that nothing is happening. Calling the police is fine, but they can't always be here in a timely fashion.

wow let's hope the judge presiding is able to see the intensity of this incident and worry about the safety of the public not whether the girls need a break at life because I would have to say this was pretty brazen. Keep us safe as swinging a hatchet, pulling a trigger and stabbings on random people is a sign of one needing help. When aggression is directed then rehab can happen but when it is random that is worse.

lacinwinnipeg: You haven't really said anything. You said you don't want to pay to incarcerate people, you don't want them running around free, and you now realize we can't send them away. What is your point? What is this other option? Or have you only got problems with the way things are, no solutions? Great addition to the dialouge.

The girls are lucky it wasn't me they took a hatchet to, one or more would be dead, or close to it.

1) There are PLENTY of social service, educational, income support, and other help (aka taxpayer dollars, and private) available to anyone willing to better themselves. But it requires INITIATIVE, HARD WORK.

2) Canada puts very few people behind bars, and for relatively short terms. Hard core, repeat, violent offenders need to be locked up for life... is it giving up on them? Yes. Has society failed them. YES. Bad us..... but better the 90% of us who are law abiding citizens don't have to put up with the scum.

3) Allow well trained and vetted adult citizens to carry concealed handguns. Many already do anyway, might as well license and regulate it.

4) I would suggest needing a license to have children, unfortunately that is clearly unconstitutional.

5) Rewrite constitution.

Canada DOES NOT incarcerate more people than other western countries other than the United States. I refer you to the 2007-2008 Human Development Report from the UN.

http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/265.html

Canada is ranked 95th by prison population, with 107/100,000 people.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured lady for a speedy and complete recovery.

HailEris..FIRST of all I said IF your not from this country...I also said IF you are!! didn't make an assumption either way and could really care less if they were born here OR immigrated here. SECOND your GUESSING wrong I am not a CONservative (reform) supporter...THIRD... I don't want anyone to take care of my problems I can take care of them myself!! I got an education and a job !!! I am Just a tax payer that is sick and tired of people blaming everyone else for their own actions. We as a society are supposed to bail them out when things go wrong for them or support them while they sit in jail for a little while...Don't think so. As far as our Justice system goes that is the biggest joke around! We are both entitled to an opinion..no one says you have like mine!

Something is not working alright.. and its most likely the home environment these six people came from. They might not even have a home. Children involved in crime is more and more the norm. In order to identify the help they need, you have to find out where they came from.

HailEris, I appreciate your feedback but fiscal responsibility is not the sole domain of the conservative party. To be honest, I don't believe that all conservative supporters are racist or want to lock up jaywalkers for life. But I have noticed that most racists are conservative supporters.

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