WATCH: Const. Jason Michalyshen relays a message from lawyer Maria Mitousis, who was injured by a letter bomb in Winnipeg.
WINNIPEG – Lawyer Maria Mitousis wants people to know she’s OK and she plans to return to law, she told Winnipeg police in an hour-long interview Thursday.
Mitousis, who lost her right hand when a letter bomb went off July 3, said she’s “just not ready yet” to speak to media, but she did have a message for the public, Const. Jason Michalyshen said at a news conference Friday. She asked Michalyshen and Winnipeg Police Service public information office manager Kelly Dehn to pass it on.
“I want people to know I’m OK, and I’ll be better,” Michalyshen relayed. “I’m not going to stop.”
READ MORE: Winnipeg bombings highlight perils of family law
Guido Amsel, 49, is accused of sending letter bombs to Mitousis and his ex-wife Iris Amsel in early July. Mitousis, who is Iris Amsel’s lawyer, was seriously injured at Petersen King law office, where she practices, on July 3.
Two other bombs were detonated by the police bomb disposal unit, one at Iris Amsel’s workplace and the other at the former law office where Guido Amsel’s former lawyer worked. The Amsels were involved in a 10-year legal battle that included their divorce proceedings and a civil suit.
Michalyshen was emotional as he described the meeting with Mitousis, expressing his admiration for her as he spoke.
“Maria is an incredibly resilient person,” he said.
Among examples of her humour, she told him, “If all goes well, I’ll have to become left-handed.”
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“… and I was just recently getting quite good at golf,” she added.
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Mitousis lost her right hand and seriously injured her left in the blast, Michalyshen confirmed. She also has multiple injuries to her face, chest and thighs.
“This brief description doesn’t come close to expressing the pain and suffering she is going through at this time, both mentally and physically,” said Michalyshen, who paused several times to master his emotions as he spoke.
Mitousis said in the moments after the device exploded, she did a self-assessment, he said.
“I have my teeth, I can see, I can blink,” she told him she thought.
She expressed thanks to the first officer at the scene, who happened to be in the area when the bomb exploded, and to the first responders who arrived shortly after him.
“I knew what was happening, where I was going, and I knew I was safe,” she said. She remembers thinking as she was en route to the hospital: “I’m going to get past this. I live in the moment. I’m going to get past this.”
Mitousis underwent a 10.5-hour surgery after the blast, Michalyshen said. She also expressed thanks to hospital staff for the care she’s received.
She also thanked the local legal community for rallying around her and asked them to continue to do what they do.
“This is not a personal attack on what we do. Keep doing it,” she said.
Her recovery will take a long time, but she has every intention of returning to work as a lawyer, she told Michalyshen and Dehn.
“I’m going to come back to do what I do.”
BELOW: Full text of Maria Mitousis’s message to the public.
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