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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

U of M stabbing victim didn't think he'd survive

By: Jason Bell

21/10/2009 1:00 AM

IT wasn't the way the school day was supposed to end for first-year student Tanner Hoplock.

The 23-year-old Winnipegger had a full day of classes behind him and was still sweating from a workout at the gym when he was attacked outside Frank Kennedy Centre on the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus on 6 p.m. Monday.

Hoplock was stabbed in the chest, but managed to get away and run for help. With a punctured lung, he didn't get far before collapsing.

His attacker managed to get in a few more swipes with a knife and several punches with his fists before fleeing the scene just outside the university's faculty of music building, Hoplock said.

Someone called an ambulance and he was rushed to the hospital. Hoplock remains in stable condition with a tube in his chest.

Police said the stabbing occurred after "a dispute."

Speaking from his bed at Health Sciences Centre on Tuesday, Hoplock said he wanted to set the record straight. "This was not about drugs or money at all... nothing like that."

He added the man charged with the stabbing is his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.

A suspect was arrested four hours after the stabbing. He is not a student at the university.

"It was all pretty shocking. I didn't think I was going to make it," Hoplock said. "I was awake the whole time. It was quite the ordeal."

Hoplock's aunt, Sheri Sherman, said there were some tense moments when medical staff told family Tanner's condition was critical.

"It was so scary," she said. "My nephew is such a good kid, so that's why this is so unbelievable. He's just a student, living on a student loan, going to school."

Danny Truong, 19, faces charges of aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon. He was detained at the remand centre.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 21, 2009 A5