The friend of a Winnipeg teen who was struck in the head with a hammer in what police believe was an unprovoked assault over the weekend says he can’t understand why anyone would attack the boy.
Dakota Grozelle says he and his brother were walking into a pizza shop Saturday when they saw the injured boy. He said the teen remained conscious and they talked with him until first-responders arrived.
“My brother started freaking out and he told me, ‘Look, there’s somebody on the ground there with a hammer in his head’,” Grozelle said on Sunday.
“I looked and I was kind of freaked out because I kind of recognized the person,” he said. “He’s one of my friends that I met on the street here, cause I like to help the community a lot.”
Police say the teen will likely suffer life-altering injuries after being hit in the head with a hammer.
Police say they responded to a call about an assault on Selkirk Avenue late Saturday morning, and the officers arrived to find a 15-year-old boy on the sidewalk with serious head trauma.
The boy had been hit with a hammer in the back of his head, and police say it was still embedded there when they arrived.
He was taken to hospital in critical condition, where he remained on Sunday.
No arrests had been made by late Sunday afternoon, but police say there was good video from a surveillance camera and that they believe one male suspect is responsible.
Less than a week earlier, another attack that police say appeared unprovoked resulted in the death of a 57-year-old man in Winnipeg.
Raymond Wesley Hill got onto the bus last Sunday afternoon when police allege a man started a fight with him and then stabbed him.
After Hill was stabbed, police say the bus stopped and Hill flagged down a passing police unit before collapsing.
Forty-six-year-old Justin Gabriel James has been charged with manslaughter.
Grozelle said he’s puzzled about why someone would want to hurt the boy who was injured Saturday.
“He was the nicest and still the nicest kid I know around here. I say hi to him every day. I don’t know why anybody would want to hurt him.”
Anyone with information on Saturday’s hammer assault is asked to contact the Major Crimes Unit at 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).