Rose-Anne Nightingale is speaking out against violence in Regina, Sask. after her 17-year-old son was attacked with a machete.
“A machete, it’s just barbaric,” Nightingale said.
Nightingale says her son, Nicholas Spur, was walking home from a friend’s place around 4 a.m on Friday when he was attacked by two men near 5th Avenue and Robinson Street.
“They fractured his cheekbone, they beat him on the head with a hammer so he’s got stitches all over his head, a broken hand from protecting himself, he’s got wounds on his shoulder, his back, his leg, they hacked his leg and cut into his bone,” Nightingale said while wiping away tears.
“It’s horrible. Words can’t describe it,” she said. “My heart was bursting. I just want to scoop him up and protect him but I can’t.”
Nightingale describes her son as loving and caring. She said she never imagined anything like this could happen to her family.
“But it can happen to anyone, anywhere,” she said. “It’s just wrong place wrong time.”
Regina police couldn’t confirm the incident, but they did confirm another machete attack the next day at the Tap off-sale. They wouldn’t say if the two are related.
“Just in the last two weeks how many machete cases, hammer cases, thefts, robberies, it’s just horrible,” Nightingale said.
Spur’s sister Sarah Watts said she was heartbroken when she saw her brother.
“He’s only 17,” she said. “There’s no reason this should happen to anyone.
“If they were an inch higher, they could have killed him, and they just left him outside,” Watt said.
Spur’s family is worried that he will be affected by the incident for the rest of his life.
“I’m hoping people can see past the scars,” said Nightingale.
Nightingale hopes her son will be released from hospital in the next day or so. “But he’s going to be limited in what he can do.”
The family is asking anyone with information about the incident to go to police. “Whoever did this needs to be punished,” Nightingale said.