Newcomer assaulted in attempted robbery

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This article was published 19/08/2024 (384 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A newcomer to the city was assaulted with a weapon in an attempted robbery in the Sargent Park area on Sunday morning.

Officers were sent to the area of Sanford Street and Sargent Avenue at about 9:15 a.m. and found a 21-year-old woman suffering from a minor upper-body injury. Members of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service treated the woman’s injuries.

The victim told police she had gotten off a Winnipeg Transit bus near the 1000 block of Empress Street and was walking when she was grabbed from behind by a suspect who tried to take her cellphone. The victim pulled back and was assaulted with a small metal weapon.

The attacker was unable to steal the phone.

The two women did not know each other, the Winnipeg Police Service said Monday.

Police spokesman Const. Pat Saydak said he did not know where the victim is originally from.

Several passersby directed officers to the location of a suspect on the 1300 block of Strathcona Street. Officers arrested her and turned her over to the WPS major crimes unit.

Eternity Dawn McCallum, 22, of Winnipeg, was charged with robbery and failing to comply with a probation order. She was detained in custody.

McCallum was charged with several offences after an incident that began when a suspect shoplifted a pair of shoes at Kildonan Place on the night of Jan. 5, 2023.

Police said at the time that when mall security staff members followed the suspect outside the building, she pointed a BB gun at them and pulled the trigger, making them think they had been shot at.

Officers arrested a suspect outside a nearby store. Officers found a BB gun on her and recovered the stolen shoes.

McCallum was charged with robbery, discharging an air gun with intent, pointing a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, failing to comply with a probation order and two counts of possession of a firearm contrary to a prohibition order. She was later sentenced to 20 months for robbery and another four months for discharging an airgun. She was given 18 months probation, which was still in effect at time of her latest arrest.

In 2020, McCallum pleaded guilty to possession of prohibited ammunition contrary to a court order. That same year, McCallum pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon. She was given a 15-day sentence on each charge.

Sunday’s attack was the second incident in which newcomers were assaulted and robbed in Winnipeg this month. A mother and her 14-year-old boy, both having recently arrived in Winnipeg as refugees from Ukraine, were beaten with a baseball bat while walking home on the 900 block of McCalman Avenue in East Elmwood on the evening of Aug. 3. The boy suffered serious head injuries. Two men have been charged.

Another Ukrainian refugee suffered a potentially life-altering eye injury when he was shot with a pellet gun during a robbery on Jan. 30. The man and his wife were robbed of their groceries while waiting at a bus stop at Burrows and Gilbert avenues. Two teenage boys were arrested.

Ivan Rubanik, 46, died after being stabbed by a stranger at Watt Street and Talbot Avenue while walking to work on Dec. 20. Ethan Richard Gladu, 19, is charged with second-degree murder.

On Canada Day in 2022, two men who had just fled Ukraine were stabbed while walking near the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Two men pleaded guilty in connection with the attack.

— with files from Dean Pritchard, Erik Pindera

adam.treusch@freepress.mb.ca