Senior in hospital after vicious attack
Man robbed in his backyard
An 86-year-old man was seriously injured when he was robbed and attacked with a weapon Tuesday morning outside his northeast Edmonton home, police say.
The attack occurred about 10:50 a.m. in the Beacon Heights neighbourhood, police spokesman Chad Orydzuk said. Paramedics treated the man before taking him to hospital.
Police believe the man was working in his backyard when he was assaulted with a weapon.
“It was initially reported as a meat cleaver, but it appears to be more of a blunt object,” Orydzuk said.
“Police are investigating the possibility this might have been a personal robbery by several individuals.”
Police arrested two men and a woman. Charges are pending, Orydzuk said.
Police tape blocked access to the neatly manicured backyard of the bungalow, located on 36th Street near 120th Avenue, where neighbours said Mike Madarash lives with his wife.
Pat Knight lives two doors from the home and was sitting inside the house when his wife heard screaming outside. He ran out his back door, recognized Madarash’s voice and hurried to his neighbour’s home, thinking the visually and hearing impaired man was having a heart attack. He found the back gate open, a bird feeder knocked down and a bleeding Madarash sitting on the grass.
“He was sitting in the back yard, hollering, ‘Help me, I can’t see,’” Knight said. “He had one eye swollen shut and blood everywhere in his eyes.”
The man had a deep gash on the bridge of his nose and gashes on his forehead and cheek. He told his neighbour he had been attacked with what looked to be a meat cleaver. Two men, one wearing a red and white ball cap and the other carrying a backpack, had fled.
“They asked him for his money. He said he didn’t have any,” Knight said. “They beat him, took his wallet, got all of his ID stuff, bank card.”
Madarash’s wife and Knight both called 911. Knight applied pressure to his neighbour’s wounds until emergency crews arrived. “I tried to help out as much as I could,” he said.
The street is usually quiet, Knight said, populated by quiet residents who carefully tend their lawns.
“It’s far enough off the big avenue, most of the rabble rousers are further south,” he said.
News of the attack came as a surprise to Nick Milich, who was visiting his elderly mother. Milich said the apparently random attack is especially concerning since many residents, like his mother, love to spend time in their gardens.
“It’s terrible, it’s reprehensible,” Milich said.
Police didn’t release any updates about the man’s condition.