A pair of Brandon-area women are facing charges of public incitement of hatred, say police, after a Black man was stabbed at a local skatepark.
The incident took place Thursday night at the Kristopher Campbell Memorial Skate Plaza and involved a group of five people — four women and one man — allegedly yelling racial slurs at a Black man.
Police say they have viewed video that shows suspects yelling racial slurs at the man before punching, kicking and stabbing him.
In a release sent to media before the press conference, Brandon Police said the video shows the fight first breaking out between the victim and the male suspect. The four women then join in with punches and kicks.
“The victim defends himself, and is holding one of the suspects down when one of the women pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim five times in the side of his abdomen,” the Brandon Police Service said in a news release Friday.
“The altercation ends as the man walks away, bleeding from wounds on his side. The female with the knife also slashed the tires of the man’s vehicle before the stabbing occurred.”
The victim was taken to the hospital by a bystander, where he was in stable condition as of Friday after emergency surgery. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Police say they found one of the suspects with blood on her clothing and a bloody knife in her pocket in the 800 block of Rosser Avenue, and arrested a second female suspect nearby.
The two women, who police say are related, are in custody, while the investigation to find the other three members of the group continues.
The women, ages 23 and 20, each face assault, public mischief, and public incitement of hatred charges, as well as failing to comply with a release order. They have been moved to the Winnipeg Remand Centre where they await their next court date. Police say further charges are pending.
Staff Sgt. Bill Brown told media Friday afternoon that Brandon police are ‘fairly confident’ they know the identities of two of three suspects still at large and are actively seeking them out.
“I think we have to remember that the substantive charge here is the stabbing,” he said.
“The racial part is horrible… I’m disgusted by it as most people would be — all people I hope — and also by the violence involved here, at a place where people take their children.
“That is not acceptable in our community.”
Brown said to his knowledge, it’s the first time hate crime charges have been laid in the city, although stabbings in general are, unfortunately, common.
Hate crime allegations are also uncommon in Winnipeg. Winnipeg police say over the last year, they’ve investigated 10 hate crime allegations — all but one of which occurred in 2019.
None of the Winnipeg incidents have resulted in charges.
–With files from The Canadian Press
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