After being attacked with a gardening tool, getting five stitches and spending a night waiting in the emergency room, 75-year-old Beverly Hill returned this week to the community garden where the incident happened.
“It hurts a bit, but I think I hurt my pride more,” the senior said, referencing her right arm that’s in a white bandage.
“I thought I could have taken her.… I’m not an old 75,” she said, “I do things. I keep myself active and maybe that’s why I was able to handle myself even though I couldn’t grab ahold of her.”
Saskatoon police have charged a 27-year-old Prince Albert woman for the assault, which left strands of Hill’s hair in the tomato patch where it happened.
Hill said it all began when she was out for a walk with her dog, Sprite, around 4:30 p.m. CST on Thursday, in the community garden behind John Dolan School in Saskatoon’s Eastview neighbourhood.
That’s when she spotted a young woman moving from garden plot to garden plot.
After watching the woman for several minutes, Hill said she called out to ask if the woman had a plot in the garden.
“I’m maybe a little overly protective of people working so hard in these gardens,” said Hill, who only recently gave up her plot in the garden. “You know, it shouldn’t be destroyed.”
The woman mumbled something Hill said she couldn’t understand, before moving on to another area of the community garden.
Hill said she politely asked the woman to leave if she didn’t have a plot. The woman then approached Hill, mumbling more things she couldn’t understand, Hill said.
“I didn’t realize that she had this spade in her hand,” she said, describing a tool like a garden trowel.
The woman got “up into” Hill’s face, still mumbling incoherently. In hindsight, Hill said she should have realized the woman was on some kind of substance.
Hill again asked the woman to leave.
“Before I knew it, she says, ‘Well, do you want to fight?'” Hill said.
Hill said the woman grabbed her hair and pulled her to the ground, then she was unable to regain her balance once she was on the ground, “otherwise I would have gotten up and tried to fight her back.”
Hill said she used her right arm to protect her head as the woman hit her with the gardening tool, and her dog tried to get between them.
Hill said the woman then backed off and started slowly walking away from her backwards, and Hill was able to return to her feet and call 911.
In less than 15 minutes, police arrived with a police canine, five officers and three police cars, Hill said.
She said she’s thankful to the officers for coming to her rescue and their “diligent work.” The officers were able to find the 27-year-old woman in a nearby bush shortly after their arrival.
According to a Saskatoon police news release, the woman is charged with aggravated assault, assaulting a peace officer, breach of undertaking and breach of probation. Police say the woman punched a female special constable in the face while she was being booked into custody.
Police said the woman also had outstanding arrest warrants in Prince Albert.
Hill spent Thursday evening in the emergency room and walked away with two large gashes to her arm that required roughly five stitches, and several cuts to her hand.
“They can’t keep me down no matter what,” she said, “I’m a go-getter.”
But Hill said she’ll take a different approach in the future.
“I think I’ll back off the next time I walk into something, and just ignore it,” Hill said.
“I’m not afraid. That’s the problem,” she said.
