‘Everyone was in shock’: arrest made in random Exchange District assaults

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/07/2024 (489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A businesswoman in the Exchange District is calling for increased social supports in the neighbourhood after she intervened in an assault against an elderly woman last week.

The victim, who was using a walker, was thrown to the ground and struck with a purse. She was one of four people targeted in a spree of unprovoked attacks on the morning of June 26.

“(The attacker) didn’t say a word. They were clearly not in their right mind,” said Marielle Sasaki, describing how she stepped out of Warehouse Artworks to find the woman being beaten on the ground.

“There were people around but I think everyone was in shock and just kind of yelling. Nobody felt like they could do anything because everybody is afraid of getting hurt.”

Sasaki, whose family has operated the art gallery on McDermot Avenue for more than 45 years, attempted to stop the assault by confronting the suspect.

“I just started yelling and telling (them) to leave,” she said, explaining she has had to intervene in other incidents previously.

“You just kind of show them that you’re not afraid of them… That’s just kind of how it is in the Exchange.”

The attacker turned on Sasaki, striking her a few times with the bag before retreating and walking eastbound toward Main Street.

The bag was filled with clothes and Sasaki was not injured. The elderly victim was helped to her feet and then walked away from the scene, also apparently unharmed, Sasaki said.

The Winnipeg Police Service issued a news release Tuesday, saying the same suspect assaulted a 38-year-old woman who had also intervened in the assault.

Police said none of the victims knew their attacker and that the purse was the suspect’s own property.

“The victims suffered minor injuries for which they did not require medical assistance,” the WPS said.

Investigators later linked the suspect to two other incidents that occurred in the area between 10:15 a.m. and 10:25 a.m.

The first attack happened on the 200 block of Bannatyne Avenue when the suspect threw a metal chair at a 68-year-old woman, striking her lower body, police said.

A staff member working at a nearby restaurant said the chair used in the assault was taken from outside his business and returned by the victim after she was struck.

She told the man, who did not want to use his name or be quoted, that she was walking down the street when a person randomly tossed the chair at her hip.

The victim appeared stunned but relatively unharmed, he said.

The final assault happened in a business parking lot on the 400 block of Main Street. The suspect opened the driver’s door of a parked vehicle and kicked the 40-year-old male driver in the lower body. Staff members from a nearby business held the suspect down until police arrived, WPS said.

Sasaki said it was a group of men working near the Palomino Club at 436 Main St., who restrained the suspect.

Police initially released the suspect but later linked them to the other assaults and obtained an arrest warrant. A 30-year-old male was apprehended in the Central Park area late Sunday morning and has been charged with three counts of assault with a weapon and one count of assault, WPS said.

The person was detained in custody.

A review of provincial court records shows the suspect has been charged in several other assaults in recent years.

The suspect pleaded guilty to assault during a hearing on March 11; assault cause bodily harm in November of 2022; and assault cause bodily harm in April of 2019.

Sasaki said she would like to see more interventions in place for people experiencing homelessness, mental health issues and addictions in the Exchange District.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca