Police trying to confirm Alberta Good Samaritan story
SEEKING WITNESSES: 45-year-old still in induced coma after brutal assault in convenience store parking lot
Despite family claims that a Grande Prairie man was heroically injured while attempting to stop a racist attack on a child, Alberta RCMP said Monday they still have no evidence that the “Good Samaritan” incident occurred.
“There’s nothing to confirm that at this point,” RCMP spokesman Cpl. Leigh Drinkwater said Monday. “There may be something else that may have precipitated this assault.”
On Thursday evening, 45-year-old John St. Jean was brutally assaulted in the parking lot of a Mac’s Convenience Store, sustaining injuries consistent with being stomped on the head. Although he is now breathing without the assistance of life support, St. Jean remained in a medically induced coma as of Monday.
Only hours after the attack, his accused assailant, Kyle Douglas Giroux, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. The 24-year-old, who was on probation at the time of the alleged attack, is due for a court date on Wednesday.
In the days after the attack, St. Jean’s wife and son have told local media that he had been ambushed while attempting to stop a man or men from bullying a child as young as 10.
“It was an African-American boy and they were using racial slurs toward him, and my dad piped up,” St. John’s son, Dakota Mackay, told CTV News.
Speaking to a CBC camera crew outside the University of Alberta hospital on Saturday, St. Jean’s wife, Dawn MacKay, said “there would have been no ulterior motive other than ‘get this kid safe.’ ”
News of the Grande Prairie Good Samaritan spread rapidly on social media throughout the weekend, earning St. Jean a mention in newspapers and broadcasts across Canada.
A GoFundMe account established by the family to raise money for St. Jean’s medical expenses had topped $10,000 as of Monday afternoon. The page reads that St. Jean was assaulted while “defending (a) young boy” and that he has no medical benefits to cover dental work and plastic surgery.
Over the weekend, WestJet offered free airfare to bring Dakota Mackay and his girlfriend to Grande Prairie from their home in Nova Scotia.
However, no witnesses yet interviewed by the RCMP could confirm that a young child had been present outside the convenience store.
“If there are other witnesses out there or if the family has information, we would appreciate that that information is brought forward to the RCMP so that we could validate it,” Drinkwater said.
St. Jean had been in the parking lot that night to buy a ring from an independent seller, according to Mackay’s account to the CBC. Drinkwater said that two witness accounts claimed that the altercation was related to the sale.
Sources at the Mac’s said that no employees were witness to the beating, which occurred away from the front doors. The building does not have security cameras, and as of yet police had failed to locate any security camera footage from neighbouring businesses which could confirm the details of the assault.
St. Jean’s family members would not have witnessed the assault, but their information reportedly comes from witnesses Mackay met at the scene.