WARNING: Some details in this story are disturbing. Discretion is advised.
North Vancouver RCMP is investigating an attack on a dog walker that happened on Jan. 23.
Lisa Adams told Global News she was walking five dogs, who were off-leash, when a man and a woman whose dogs were also off-leash cursed at her.
She said they told her to leash her dogs after one of their dogs bounded into the woods.
“Generally when I see people coming, I’ll call my dogs or I’ll move all of us way off to the side so that people can get through. It’s called trail etiquette. It’s a thing to do,” Adams told Global News.
She said they met at a trail junction and that all the dogs seemed happy and fine.
“And so as I approached, the woman said something to me and I said, ‘oh, pardon?’ And she immediately said, ‘don’t ignore me b***h. Don’t ignore me b***h. You heard me put your f***ing dogs on a leash’. And I said, ‘I really didn’t hear you’. And I was standing there like this going, ‘I’m really sorry. I actually didn’t hear you.'”
Adams said the woman continued to call her a b***h, telling her she is nothing and worthless.
“And so at this point, I said, ‘OK, I’m going to go this way with my dogs’. And they said, ‘well, we want to go that way’. And I said, ‘OK, well then I’ll go that way.'”
Adams said the woman just kept swearing at her and calling her names and then said she was going to report her.
When the woman pulled out her phone, Adams pulled out her own phone and that’s when she said the man took a swing at her.
That’s when she started recording.
“So what’s important to note is what’s seen on these videos is not the extent of what happened at that point,” Adams said. “Once he came and he pushed me, as you can see in the videos, he slapped really hard on my phone. He saw it in my hand and he tried to hit it out of my hand. And I actually squeezed so hard that last week I had bruising from how hard I was gripping my phone.
“And then he grabbed me by both of my shoulders and shoved me down into the bushes. And now I’m on my back and he’s on top of me. I have bruising from my thighs, my calves from where his knees and feet were holding me down. And in that moment he just began pummeling one, two, one, two. And I had my hands up trying to defend myself.”
Adams said the woman did not do anything, she just stood there while Adams was yelling for the man to get off her. She said the woman finally came and pulled the man off.
She said two of the dogs were getting very distressed and barking.
Another dog, a labrador, had even crawled under the bushes and was trying to pull Adams out from under the man by tugging on her coat.
“And I jumped up and I had my phone in my hand still,” she said. “And so I was just in shock at that point. I’m going, ‘oh my God, I’m calling the cops. I’m calling the cops. This is the most insane thing. I can’t believe you just did this.'”
She said the couple started to walk away but when the man saw that she was still recording, he came at her a second time.
“And the second attack was absolutely calculated,” she added. “From what I could tell, the way that he came at me, he pushed my phone and that’s when it turned off.”
She realized the man was trying to take her phone so she gripped it even tighter.
“So he suddenly took a right hook, came to punch me, came at my head like this, and I quickly put my hands up to prevent it. And in that moment, as soon as my hand came up, his left hand (came) right at my stomach, and he punched me super hard in the gut. Then he grabbed both my arms … wrapped himself around me in a bear hug.”
Adams said the woman was trying to grab her phone while the man threw her face down in the bushes and began punching her again. She started screaming for help and eventually struck him with her elbow and managed to kick him off her.
Someone heard her calls for help. A woman, who was actually one of her clients, showed up and the couple left.
“I was broken,” Adams said. “I fell down to the ground and was just crying and scared. And I’m pretty sure I went into shock.”
Police were called.
North Vancouver RCMP confirmed on Feb. 8 that the couple has come forward to the police. No charges have been laid in the case and the investigation is ongoing. They are not asking for the public’s help in this case.
Const. Mansoor Sahak said these incidents are rare.
“We’re potentially looking at an assault charge,” he said. “My understanding is the victim, in this case, was punched, pushed down and further kicked and punched.”
Adams said she felt tender and bruised for days, with scratches on her hands where she tried to defend herself.
Adams is worried about something like this happening to someone else.
“It’s scary to think that someone, anyone, is walking around in these woods thinking it’s OK to put their hands on anybody,” she said. “Something needs to change. People are getting very angry.
“There’s like a movement of hate going on right now that has to stop.”
“I don’t know how else to say it. It’s just we need to be kinder to each other and people need to live with an open heart. I used to live every day telling myself I’m going to smile at everyone that looks at me. And now this week, in this last week, I’m terrified.
“I’m scared to look at people in case they’re having a bad day and they feel like they need to take it out on me. This particular incident, I wish I could have said it was something to do with the dogs, but the dogs didn’t do anything wrong. It was all human.”