A Winnipeg couple is speaking out after being attacked by several armed suspects on their way home from work in the downtown area Monday night.
Devyn Cusson and his girlfriend Rebecca Tweed were on their way home from work on Carlton Street shortly after 10 p.m. when they say two women and a man asked them for the time and a lighter.
The couple gave the time, but declined to give the group a lighter.
“We turned to go walk away and that’s when I noticed the girl swing at Rebecca and I defended us,” Cusson said.
The suspects then ganged up on Cusson, hitting him with what appeared to be a sock full of rocks, before Tweed said she intervened.
“That’s when one of the females started hitting me in the head several times with the weapon that she had brought,” Tweed said. “It was very loud, very painful. I think she got me about four or five times.”
Tweed said she was able to escape and dial 911 while her boyfriend was able to restrain one of the female suspects as the others fled on foot with Cusson’s cell phone and cigarettes.
Moments later, the couple said another man, allegedly carrying a hammer, approached them.
“I was yelling at the 911 operator, ‘he’s telling me to get off the phone, he’s telling me to get off the phone,’ and she was tell me, ‘no you can’t hang up, you can’t hang up,’ and I was fearing for my life at this point,” Tweed said.
The couple said police came rushing in before that second encounter could get violent.
Tweed has a lump on her head from the attack and said doctors told her she suffered a concussion.
Cusson suffered bumps and bruises on his upper body, including his face and head.
“I was definitely thinking at some point in this fight I might die,” Cusson said.
Cusson is planning to take part in a safe walk program and Tweed is arranging to change her work schedule.
“Something has got to happen with downtown,” Tweed said.
Two suspects, a 27-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man, have been charged, while another two remain at large.
Police said one individual was acting erratically, but didn’t know if it was due to drug use.