A father in New Westminster, B.C., is speaking out about an unprovoked attack on his family last week, in which a stranger allegedly tried to take his baby.
Dustin Lawton said he was walking with one-year-old Freya and her mom Amber at Carnarvon and 6th streets in downtown New Westminster around 7:45 p.m. on Jan. 14, when a man “fixed eyes” with them in the middle of the street.
“I tried to turn away from him and he jumped in front of me,” Lawton said in an interview. “He grabbed the stroller with two hands and tried to rip it away from me. He had the stroller right up off the ground.”
He said the man reached for Freya’s hood and that’s when his instinct to protect aggressively kicked in.
“That’s when I believe I elbowed him in the head and Amber got a hold of the stroller,” said Lawton. “In the same sequence of what happened, I grabbed him and threw him upside down on onto his head.”
Lawton said he used his feet to ensure the man would stay on the ground and then stepped away to avoid being charged with assault himself.
The man tried to get up and Lawton said he pushed him back down. He and his family then backed away completely, and the suspect got up, walked a short distance away and started “punching this guy’s car.”
Lawton said the vehicle’s occupants got out. One took a swing at the man and the other tripped him. Police arrived shortly afterward.
Robbie Morrison, who resides in an apartment by the intersection, witnessed the last portion of events.
“I heard some noise and I thought there was an altercation … I got up and looked at my window and at that time, the gentleman — a driver — jumped out of his car and started to spar with this other gentleman,” he recalled.
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“There was a lot of people gathered around taking videos and such.”
New Westminster police arrested the suspect and according to a police news release, the suspect spat on one of his arresting officers in the process.
Police later identified the man as 46-year-old New Westminster resident Jamie Maclean, and charged with one count of assaulting a police officer and one count of mischief.
“This was a random attack, an isolated incident. Something like this hasn’t happened in New West before in my recollection,” Sgt. Sanjay Kumar told Global News.
Maclean was known to New Westminster police, Kumar added, for “relatively minor files.”
Given the severity of this incident, however, Lawton said Maclean should face more serious charges than a single count of mischief related to the attack on his daughter.
He’s also upset Maclean was released from custody ahead of a court appearance next month.
“I just don’t understand how he’s out the next day on a mischief charge and he spit on a police officer, he’s got an assault charge for that, but he’s got a promise to appear,” said Lawton.
“What’s to say he’s not going to do it to somebody else? Or if I run into him again, then what’s going to happen?”
Lawton said he’s in “shock” over the entire incident and doesn’t feel it’s safe to walk his daughter downtown anymore. He doesn’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t been with Freya and her mother that day to intervene.
“Imagine if he had punched my daughter, or if he actually got her out of the stroller … he could have easily killed her. For the cops to let him go, it’s just unbelievable,” said Lawton. “I want to see more justice … not an assault charge or a mischief charge.”
New Westminster police said they’re still investigating the case and gathering evidence, and it’s possible more serious charges could be recommended against the suspect in the future.
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