A suspect has been charged in a series of unprovoked attacks last week, including one where the victim was an elderly woman using a walker.
The last assault happened in a business parking lot on the 400 block of Main Street at about 10:26 a.m. on June 26. A suspect opened the driver’s door of a parked vehicle and kicked the 40-year-old male driver in the lower body. Officers arrested a suspect being held down by staff members.
The suspect was released. In the following days, police were told about three other random assaults that happened in the Exchange District area between about 10:15 and 10:25 a.m. on June 26.
The first incident happened on the 200 block of Bannatyne Avenue. A suspect threw a metal chair, hitting a 68-year-old woman in the lower body. Later, a suspect pushed an elderly woman using a walker to the ground on the 200 block of McDermot Avenue and began beating her with a purse. A local business owner intervened and stopped the assault, the Winnipeg Police Service said Tuesday.
Police said the same suspect assaulted a 38-year-old woman who had also intervened in the assault with the purse and then fled on foot.
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 in a news release.
Officers linked the suspect in the Main Street assault to the three earlier incidents and obtained an arrest warrant. A 30-year-old male was arrested 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.
The suspect was detained in custody.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca