A local – and vocal – businessman is once again speaking out about public safety in the downtown after one of his workers was randomly struck in the face.
Darren Halloran told VOCM Open Line with Brian Callahan, the young man, who had left the store yesterday to pick up a gift for a co-worker, was struck repeatedly by the woman, breaking his glasses.
“He does have autism and he’s high functioning. He’s a really nice young man, and everyone loves Michael, and if they don’t then they don’t understand him.”
“Yesterday he was walking down the street to get a present for one of our staff, that’s what Michael likes to do. He was walking down the street and this lady walked out of a store, and she started smacking herself, and then all of a sudden when Michael was walking by, she attacked him. She started punching him in the face, broke his glasses, continued to punch him and just left him there, broken and bloody.”
(via the CFIB)
Halloran says online chatter suggests that the same woman, who is well known, may have attacked another person later that day.
One woman appeared in court this morning on two counts each of assault, and failure to comply with a release order.
Halloran calls the incident a symptom of a much bigger issue in the metro region.
Listen to “Darren Halloran” on Spreaker.
“The people in power need to start making changes around here” says Halloran, “downtown is becoming not a nice place to come which is very unfortunate for businesses like myself, and other businesses downtown.”
Mayor Danny Breen, who recently called for collaboration with the provincial and federal governments in dealing with public safety says he expects new initiatives to be introduced in the province’s spring budget.
