Sierra Jursza’s first instinct after seeing a man clubbed in the face with a wooden stick, one in a string of violent attacks in downtown Victoria, was to pursue the assailant.
“It just came naturally,” said Jursza, 31, visiting Victoria from Niagara Falls for a friend’s wedding on Saturday.
Multiple victims were bloodied by a man wielding what appeared to be a field hockey stick, in a late-night Wednesday rampage with no apparent motive.
Victoria police said numerous charges are being recommended against a man who is accused of assaulting several people and damaging property — a crime spree that saw 16 officers from various departments and a dog team chase him down.
Police have not said how many victims and how many locations were involved.
The B.C. Ambulance Service said it sent crews to five locations and took six people to hospital. The nature of the injuries has not been released.
“To date, multiple victims have been identified, all suffering non-life-threatening injuries,” Victoria police Const. Matt Rutherford said. “In addition to the assaults, the suspect damaged property as he moved through the downtown area.”
Jursza was at Garrick’s Head Pub, 1140 Government St., facing the street-side picture window when she saw a cabbie’s driver-door window being smashed.
When Jursza ran out, the uninjured cab driver was yelling and pointing down the street at a man running toward the legislature, “but no one was really paying attention to him,” Jursza said.
It was then that Jursza saw a man, who she described as wearing a black sweatshirt with its hood over his head, “club a guy in the face.”
It came out of nowhere, she said.
“The guy who got hit ran across the road flailing his arms saying ‘somebody help, somebody call 911’ and he was bleeding a lot from his face,” said Jursza.
His head was gushing blood, she said. The victim was a large, well-dressed man estimated to be in his 30s.
As he fled, the attacker hit things with his wooden stick.
Jursza said she instinctively ran after the attacker as he “zigzagged through the streets” toward Douglas Street.
“No one was stopping him,” she said. Jursza’s boyfriend pursued her and she told him to phone 911.
Another man was also trying to chase the attacker, and a third joined later as police sirens came from all directions, said Jursza. “They couldn’t really catch him,” she said.
Finally the man was trapped in a parking lot and police came in from all sides, emerging with a suspect in handcuffs, Jursza said.
Police said the suspect was arrested at Douglas and Humboldt streets, near the Victoria Conference Centre.
An officer at the arrest scene held what Jursza suspects was the weapon — a field hockey stick. During her pursuit Jursza said she had called police and mistakenly identified the weapon as a bat.
Police said they received the first report of an assault at 9:45 p.m. at Pandora Avenue and Store Street.
Scott McClelland, 45, was nearby in his Chinatown Fisgard Street condo with the patio door open when he heard a loud pop — which he thought was possibly a gunshot — followed by screaming.
McClelland ran down four floors to street level and was told the sound was the crack of a bat on a man’s upper right forehead.
“As officers were attending that assault, our communication centre began receiving multiple 911 calls about several other assaults involving the same suspect,” said Rutherford.
McClelland said the victim, in his 50s, was sitting on the curb between parked cars and had a large gash on his forehead. The victim was containing the blood flow with a towel witnesses had given him.
The victim was out walking his two dogs — as he often does, according to McClelland’s wife Katherine Teng — when he was attacked, said McClelland.
The Fisgard Street resident was with the victim when police arrived.
McClelland said he heard police say an attacker was on a spree, hitting vehicles and people throughout downtown, and had been arrested.
“I overheard a police officer say a guy was in the area randomly hitting people with a bat and that there was more than one incident,” McClelland said.
The number of police officers working on the case is expected to rise, said Rutherford.
Investigators are looking for witnesses who were in the area of the assaults, including the 500-block of Fisgard Street, Store and Wharf streets between Fisgard Street and Broughton Street, the corner of Government and View streets, and the corner of Government Street and Broughton Street.
Police want to speak to any victims of assault or damage to property who have not yet reported the crimes to police.
Investigators are recommending several charges, including two counts of aggravated assault, three counts of assault causing bodily harm, five counts of assault with a weapon, one count of mischief, and several counts of breach of probation.
Anyone with information about the crime spree is being asked to call the Victoria Police Department at 250-995-7654.
To report anonymously, call Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
