MALL ASSAULT
Woman’s assistance crucial; suspect identified
A woman who provided First Aid to a man assaulted with a weapon Thursday at the mall says she sprung into assistance simply because it was the moral course of action.
“Everybody has a right to live. At the end of the day, we’re all people,” Nicole Simmons said. “If it was me in that situation or my family, I would want someone to do what I did and step in. Whether it’s traumatizing, or whatever else, it had to be done.
“I would do it again and again and again.”
Simmons was on lunch break from her job at one of the mall’s jewellery stores when she heard an elderly man “on the bench struggling to breathe.”
She approached him and found out he was “severely bleeding” from his throat, so she ran back to her workplace to get paper towels.
“I ran back to him, climbed on the bench and leaned over him, removed his hands from his neck and put my hands over his neck with as much paper towel as I could,” Simmons recalls.
She said she engaged him in conversation to “keep him conscious,” asking him his age, the date and how his Christmas was.
Simmons said the man told her exactly what happened from his perspective, but she was reluctant to provide specific details to avoid interfering with the police investigation.
“It was a difficult situation because when I approached, there were a lot of bystanders standing near him, but they weren’t helping. I didn’t think it was as serious as it was until I approached him,” she said.
Simmons learned First Aid from her father — a British army paramedic — so she was able to quickly jump in to help the victim and put her skills to use.
“My adrenaline kicked in,” she said.
Police arrived on the scene about 10-15 minutes after Simmons began treating the victim. Since she had matters under control, they were able to pursue the alleged assailant.
Shortly after, the paramedics arrived and Simmons stuck around to offer her assistance. She estimates she was with the victim for 20-25 minutes before he was taken to the hospital on a stretcher.
“He was one of the nicest men I ever met and was super, super strong throughout the whole process,” Simmons said. “I just want the family to know that he was looked after and I was not going to let anything bad happen to him.”
Suspect identified
Police have identified the suspect arrested Thursday for allegedly committing assault with a weapon against a 72-year-old man at the Medicine Hat Mall. Paul Fabreau, 40, has been charged with aggravated assault, possessing a dangerous weapon and a breach of release documents.
He’s been remanded in custody and is scheduled to appear in provincial court Monday.
Police aren’t revealing the relationship between the accused and victim, but have acknowledged they were known to each other.
Nor are they revealing the weapon allegedly used by the accused, although unverified reports suggest the incident was a stabbing.
Since the investigation into the incident is ongoing, Staff Sgt. Rod Thompson says these details remain “confidential” and won’t be revealed until the matter is dealt with in court.