The mother of the two women who were involved in a violent altercation at a comedy show in Kelowna, B.C., is speaking out, hoping the woman who allegedly attacked her daughters faces consequences.
“She basically attacked two innocent women whose crime was simply asking them to keep it quiet,” said the mother, who asked to remain anonymous due to concerns for her daughters’ safety.
On Oct. 28, the woman’s daughters attended a comedy show at the Kelowna Community Theatre, headlined by comedian Steve-O.
The mother is now pleading with the public to help identify the woman who left her daughters injured and severely traumatized.
“If you know this girl, for the sake and well-being of people in this city, someone come forward with her name, please,” said the mother.
According to witnesses, the fight broke out during the pre-show, before Steve-O took the stage. It allegedly started after the woman’s daughters told two people seated near them to keep it down.
“It was two girls. The one girl said, ‘Can you please be quiet?’ They told her off and then the other one a couple of minutes later said, ‘We can’t hear,’ and then it just started fighting,” said Tammy Heykants, who witnessed the incident.
The victim’s mother says during the exchange the two people called her daughter and daughter-in-law vulgar names and threw a drink in their faces, saying that’s when the attack started.
“This large blonde woman leaps over the seats from behind and began to start pummelling. First, my daughter hit her twice. At that point she bent over and as she called it, ‘turtled’, to try and protect her face because her nose had been broken,” the mother said.
“This girl turned on my daughter-in-law who was right next to her and basically had her trapped in her seat and proceeded to start pummeling her.”
The mother believes this wasn’t a fight, but rather an attack on her daughters.
“Any video you look, at my daughters were not fighting back they were only trying to protect themselves from further injury.”
Shortly after the fight broke out, security guards went over to intervene and escort several people out of the theatre.
The City of Kelowna, which operates the theatre, said in a statement to Global News that promoters analyze the security needs of each show.
“We believe that the security company acted appropriately in response to the altercation between the patrons. The patrons involved were removed without further incident,” read the statement.
However, the victim’s mother disagrees, saying security should have intervened when the attendees first began getting rowdy. She said that once the fight broke out police should have been called right away, rather than just kicking them out of the venue.
“Because they sent her on her way, nobody knows her identity there are no consequences for her actions,” the mother said. “She is sent back out to the streets to do this to a couple of other girls half her size.”
One of her daughters filed a police report following the incident, however, the mother says without knowing the woman’s identity, her daughters cannot yet press charges.
Kelowna RCMP continues to investigate and is asking anyone who attended the show and has photos and videos from the altercation to contact police.