Refugee Ukrainian boy beaten unconscious with bat, mother hurt in random robbery

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This article was published 12/08/2024 (429 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A mother and her teenage son who recently arrived in Winnipeg as refugees from Ukraine were robbed and beaten with a baseball bat while walking home in East Elmwood earlier this month, leaving the 14-year-old in hospital with serious head injuries.

The mother and son were “brand new” to the city, the Free Press has confirmed.

The robbery happened on the 900 block of McCalman Avenue shortly before 6 p.m. on Aug. 3, the Winnipeg Police Service said Monday.

Officers found the 14-year-old boy unconscious. His mother, who is in her 30s, was less-seriously injured.

The teen’s head injuries left him in “touch-and-go” condition until he recently stabilized, WPS spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said Monday.

“This is a family that has just recently come here for safe refuge,” she said. “They were walking towards their home… and they were randomly beset upon, and egregiously attacked.”

After speaking with the mother, police learned the two were walking to their home near Kent Road and Nairn Avenue when they were confronted by two suspects asking for money.

When they refused, they were assaulted with a baseball bat and robbed of personal property, including a cellphone. The suspects ran off.

Major crimes investigators have deemed the incident random, as the victims and suspects did not know each other.

Patrol officers soon located two Winnipeg men and arrested them on the 1600 block of Regent Avenue West.

Donovan Kane Tray Kipling, 26, is charged with assault causing bodily harm, assault, uttering threats, robbery and mischief under $5,000.

The mischief charge is in relation to some of the victims’ property being damaged during the attack, McKinnon said.

Dawson Marcus Keeper, 27, is charged with robbery and failing to comply with conditions of a release order.

Both men are in custody.

Police delayed releasing information about the attack until Monday, in part, due to the teen’s unstable condition.

The boy and his mother are not the first Ukrainian victimized by random violence in Winnipeg after fleeing their war-torn country following Russia’s military invasion in February 2022.

On Dec. 20 last year, Ivan Rubanik, 46, was stabbed to death while walking to work in the morning near Watt Street and Talbot Avenue in what a police spokesman described as a wrong-place-wrong-time scenario.

Ethan Gladu, 19 at the time of the attack, is charged with second-degree murder.

On Canada Day 2022, two Ukrainian refugees were attacked while walking near the Canadian Museum for Human Rights at shortly before 10:30 p.m., after they accidentally bumped into a group of men they didn’t know.

A then-22-year-old victim suffered a life-threatening stab wound but later recovered, while a then-23-year-old victim was treated for exposure to bear spray.

A witness who assisted the victims and later visited them in hospital told media the pair had arrived in Canada just two weeks earlier. They had moved into a downtown apartment the day of the attack.

Jayden Kyle Martin and Tyson Cole Steven Bechard, both in their early 20s, have pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the attack. It was not immediately clear Monday whether a youth co-accused has had his charges heard in court.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

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