A 67-year-old man is recovering from multiple injuries to his face and body after what Comox Valley RCMP are calling “a brutal and senseless assault on a vulnerable member of our community.”
The incident took place in Lewis Park near downtown Courtenay, B.C., around 11:35 a.m. on Sunday.
The accused is a 29-year-old with multiple assault charges and one conviction dating back to 2019. RCMP say he is known to police and has been charged with aggravated assault and robbery.
He remains in custody pending his next court appearance.
Serge Melancon told CBC News he was in his vehicle with his wife, Deirdre Melancon, when a man approached them asking to call 911 because someone was overdosing nearby.
Melancon says he immediately agreed, but then the man said he wanted to take the phone to make the call himself. When Melancon declined, a fight allegedly ensued.
“He opened the door and started to assault me,” Melancon said over the phone from Campbell River, where he lives.
“He just started pounding on me.”
Melancon says he tried to stay calm as he fought off the attacker, partly because the car was running and in drive, with just his foot on the brake.
As the accused moved further into the vehicle and closer to his wife, Deirdre, a 64-year-old double amputee, she began to defend him as well.
“I just took off my seatbelt and got down on the floor and then started hitting him over the head with my coffee cup,” she told CBC News.
After the cup broke, Deirdre said, she began to hit the man in the face with a small fan they used to cool the vehicle — a bus they had converted into an RV.
But the couple says the accused then pulled Serge out of the vehicle and onto the ground.
“He pulled him out of the bus so violently he actually bent the door,” Deirdre said.
Serge says he looked into the man’s face. He noticed his assailant’s calm expression.
“He was really concentrating and doing his job properly. There was no emotion in this,” Serge said.
After Serge fell, he says the man stopped hitting him and began to walk away. Police arrived within seconds. RCMP say when they arrived, they found an older man bleeding from his face.
“We are grateful to witnesses who stepped forward to help and to those who provided critical information that led to the quick arrest of the suspect,” said Insp. Scott Mercer.
The couple says the whole ordeal lasted about five minutes.
Police say the accused was immediately taken into custody, where he remains until his next court appearance on Aug. 28.
Deirdre says her husband spent the night in hospital, recovering from injuries to his face, knee and body. The couple has since returned to Campbell River, where Deirdre lives in a long-term care home.
Serge says it was a fluke that he and his wife happened to be at the park. They had been camping on nearby Denman Island and had stopped to use the accessible shower facilities at the nearby Lewis Centre.
“It was so random that nobody can be mad at nobody, basically,” he said.
