Woman arrested after pregnant mom, daughter assaulted with brick in Nanaimo
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A pregnant Nanaimo girl was hit within the abdomen with a brick whereas making an attempt to protect her younger daughter from an unprovoked assault in downtown Nanaimo on Monday.
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The lady, within the late phases of her being pregnant, was rushed to hospital, the place she is in steady situation, RCMP Reserve Const. Gary O’Brien stated in an interview. He stated the four-year-old daughter was traumatized.
“It was a tragic and traumatizing state of affairs for this girl, who was making an attempt to guard her daughter,” he stated.
O’Brien stated the household was the sufferer of “somebody in an excessive psychological well being disaster.”
Witnesses advised police a 37-year-old girl grew to become violent within the downtown space Monday afternoon. She needed to be faraway from a restaurant after which began putting out at random individuals alongside the road. A number of bystanders tried to calm her, to no avail.
The lady made her technique to Museum Method, the place she picked up a brick and threw it on the mom and her four-year-old daughter, who have been solely about three ft away, O’Brien stated.
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“She was screening her daughter, who would have been hit by that brick, and, sadly, the brick hit within the space of her unborn child,” he stated.
The lady needed to be restrained by a number of individuals, together with downtown safety workers, till police arrived.
O’Brien stated the lady is well-known to Nanaimo RCMP and is going through prices of with assault with a weapon. She was taken into custody and transported to the Nanaimo courthouse Tuesday, the place she was awaiting an look earlier than a decide.
O’Brien stated police are involved about rising violence associated to mental-health points within the Nanaimo core.
“It’s nearly a every day incidence now … the place individuals in psychological well being crises simply lose management,” he stated. “Sadly, violence breaks out and harmless individuals get damage.”
In response to information just lately launched by Statistics Canada, Nanaimo had a criminal offense severity index of 129.70 in 2021 — nicely above the B.C. common of 92.86 however under the 148.43 seen in Victoria. The index measures the amount and severity of police-reported crime.
Nanaimo’s 2021 quantity represents a soar from 2017, when it was 97.78. The best quantity seen prior to now 5 years was 142.51 in 2019.
dkloster@timescolonist.com
