‘He was just stomping on her’

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This article was published 27/02/2025 (289 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The son of an 83-year-old woman, who was assaulted while she walked to a store to get milk Tuesday afternoon, is incensed.

Joseph Fourre said Thursday his mother, Victoria Comeau, was beaten as she walked to Young’s Trading on William Avenue, which is near her home at Elgin Avenue and Ellen Street.

“She got to the corner and a guy punched her in the back of the head,” Fourre said. “She turned around to see what was going on and he punched her in the face.”

Comeau fell to the ground, Fourre said, and that’s when her attacker, who tried to grab Comeau’s wallet, began to kick her in her midsection, causing internal bleeding and shattering her pelvis.

“He was just stomping on her,” Fourre said. “She’s a tough woman.”

A person in a passing vehicle pulled over to intervene.

“I’m so grateful for that person, because had he not, I believe this guy would have probably killed her,” Fourre said.

Winnipeg police have not yet made an arrest.

He questioned why the Ross Ellen Housing Complex, a mental health and addictions centre was set up steps from Comeau’s 55-plus building.

“It’s like putting lions next to the lambs and hoping the lions behave themselves,” Fourre said. “Unfortunately, my mother paid the price.”

He demanded measures be taken to make the area safer, including the addition of security cameras.

Fourre, who said he’s been sober for six years, understands the need for housing and addiction services.

He started the “No thanks, I’m good” campaign, which is aimed at helping youth stay away from drugs, in 2023 after his son, Harlan, overdosed on fentanyl. He believed he was taking ecstasy during a night out after finishing a roofing job with his crew in The Pas.

Harlan’s mother had died of an overdose two years earlier.

Fourre said it’s disheartening, given his work, to see his mother fall victim to what he suspects was a drug-fuelled attack.

“I understand that, and I’m trying to have empathy for this individual,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s no excuse. We need to get better.”

Fourre said Comeau was taken to the Grace Hospital and transferred to Health Sciences Centre as doctors suspected she would need surgery. Doctors at HSC ruled out surgery and she was transferred back to the Grace where she’s expected to be for “a little bit,” Comeau said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca