A Winnipeg man is left waiting to find out what health effects he may be facing after he was stabbed by a stranger with a needle at a fast-food restaurant.
And police say the woman arrested in the alleged assault has faced similar charges in the past.
Gerard Leuchter was waiting in line at the Burger Factory on Regent Avenue Sunday afternoon when he says a woman came up from behind and stabbed him with a hypodermic syringe.
“I felt something between my shoulders and then she took off right away,” Leuchter told 680 CJOB Monday.
“The lady at the cash register asked me if we were together, and I said no, and she told the kid in the back to call 911 and she told me I had been stabbed with a needle.”
Leuchter said the woman appeared to be intoxicated and was “screaming and talking to herself” outside the restaurant before he went in.
He says she followed him into the restaurant and was standing near enough to him that he offered her the change after he placed his order.
After taking the change he says she walked out of his line of sight, and that’s when she stabbed him, he says.
In a release Monday police said a 34-year-old woman was arrested outside the restaurant around noon.
Police confirmed to Global News it’s not the first time the accused has been charged in connection with a seemingly random needle stabbing.
The same woman was charged with aggravated assault in 2018 when a woman was stabbed with a needle while shopping at Vital Centre back in 2018.
At the time, police said the accused was found with a small amount of meth as well as needles in the previous case.
‘We’re not going to know for a while’
Leuchter says he’s still waiting to find out what — if anything — was in the needle he was stabbed with in the latest assault.
After giving a statement to police, Leuchter said he went straight to nearby Concordia Hospital to get checked out.
He said his blood was tested and he was given a number of vaccinations. He is also now on several medications.
“They gave me pills for in case, lets say, she has HIV, which we don’t know … they gave me a shot for Hepatitis B and then another shot for an anti-virus,” he said.
“We’re not going to know for a while what she had or what was in the needle.
“But in the same time, I can’t wait to get sick to to, to take precautions. So that’s, that’s why I went to the hospital.”
Leuchter is hopeful police will be able to tell him what was in needles he says were found on the suspect when she was arrested. He’s also waiting anxiously to find out what more doctors can tell him at follow-up medical appointments this week.
“Now it’s a guessing game, because I don’t know — maybe it’s nothing, maybe it’s something,” he said.
The woman arrested Sunday is charged with assault with a weapon and failing to comply with a release order.
She remains in custody, police say.