Two 14-year-old boys have been arrested and charged in connection with three assaults at LRT stations last week, Edmonton police said.
In a news release, police described the attacks as “vicious and unprovoked.”
The first happened on April 1 just before 1 a.m. at the Muttart LRT station on the Valley Line.
A 40-year-old man was sitting alone when two teens came up to him and, without provocation, one teen pulled out a baton and hit the man in the head, police said.
The man tried to run away but the teen kept assaulting him, police said.
Officers responded and found the man near 84th Street and 101st Avenue. Paramedics were called and took him to hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries, police said.
The second incident was shortly after that, at 2:15 a.m. at the underground Churchill LRT station.
Police said a 27-year-old woman was waiting at the bottom of a staircase when two male teens she didn’t know confronted her.
Police said she walked up the stairs but was stopped by the teens, who kicked her down the stairs and ran away.
Paramedics responded but the woman didn’t require treatment, police said in a news release Tuesday.
While officers were at that location, a 32-year-old man came over and said he’d also been assaulted.
He said two male youths he didn’t know tried to pick a fight with him, hitting him with a baton before running away, police said.
Shortly before 3 a.m., officers found the two 14-year-old suspects “loitering at the Churchill LRT station.”
Since both of them are minors, they cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The first is charged with aggravated assault, robbery, two counts of assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public and assault causing bodily harm.
The other is charged with aggravated assault, robbery, assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public and breach of conditions of a release order.