Neighbour with bat forces suspect to call 9-1-1 on himself
SASKATOON — As soon as Jean-Pierre Veilleux heard the loud banging, he grabbed a baseball bat and ran out the front door of his Saskatoon home.
Unbeknownst to him, a man had broken into the house next door and stabbed Veilleux’s neighbour.
“I heard a bang and a smash and right away I grabbed my bat. I was like, ‘Something bad is going on here,’ ” Veilleux said.
He knocked on his neighbour’s door with the bat and soon came face-to-face with the suspect.
“Right away I took one swing of the bat and hit him in the head. He got busted open and blood was squirting out,” Veilleux said.
He chased the man down the alley behind the 600 block of Lisgar Avenue, caught up with him and made the man call police on his own cellphone, he said.
“He phoned 9-1-1 and that was it. The cops came.”
Saskatoon police confirmed they were called to a home in the 600 block of Lisgar Avenue after a report of a break-and-enter in progress on Friday shortly before 8 a.m.
In a news release, police said a suspect broke into the house and stabbed a woman — Veilleux’s neighbour — multiple times. The victim and the suspect were both taken to hospital with what police are describing as nonlife threatening injuries.
Police said the incident does not appear to be a random act and that the victim and suspect knew each other. Veilleux said he’d seen the man around the house before.
Police are still investigating.
Veilleux said his neighbour was stabbed with a pair of scissors at least three times. Other neighbours said they saw her walking away from the scene.
Veilleux said he is simply glad his neighbour survived.