Winnipeg woman randomly punched in Exchange District

A Winnipeg woman is recovering after she was punched in the Exchange District, in broad daylight.

Brittney Thomas-Ljungberg was walking to lunch with her partner Sunday afternoon when she says a man walked up and punched her in the face.

“I was facing my partner and I turned back to face the other way and the guy was there,” she said. “It was a sucker-punch.”

The man fled the area and has not been arrested.

Winnipeg Police are investigating the incident. It happened at Rupert Avenue and Princess Street.

The 28-year-old Thomas-Ljungberg has already undergone one surgery on her eye, but it’s unclear whether her vision will fully return.

“They can’t tell anything about my vision yet because there is too much trauma,” she said. “There’s a puncture through the sclera, which is the white of the eye and they had to reattach part of the cornea.”

She will be seeing a specialist on Friday.

Thomas-Ljungberg, who worked in the Exchange District since she was a teenager, said she has never had any problems in the neighbourhood prior to this incident.

“My incident is a smaller part of a much larger problem of people who are troubled, who are not getting the attention that they deserve,” she said. “This is more of a systematic problem than anything else.”

She believes her situation is an isolated one and said people shouldn’t avoid the Exchange.

“It’s like getting struck by lightning,” she added.