Driver attacked with knife following collision with cyclist
By Lethbridge Herald on August 30, 2021.
Tim Kalinowski
Lethbridge Herald
Police are confirming charges have been laid in an incident where a cyclist allegedly used a knife to slash the face of a 28-year-old Thermax Refrigeration and Heating technician from Coaldale following an altercation earlier this month.
The Lethbridge Police Service confirmed charges had been laid against a 46-year-old cyclist, Peter Ajang, following media inquiries into the incident after Thermax owner Steve Cameron posted his own summary about the incident on his company’s Facebook page on Thursday.
In his post, Cameron said he was surprised the alleged assault hadn’t been given more public attention given the randomness and severity of the violence involved.
“Our technician was Eastbound on 2nd (2A) Ave North, attempting to make a right-hand turn onto 13th Street,” Cameron posted. “He came to a complete stop at the intersection. He checked both directions for oncoming traffic and pedestrians, the crosswalk was clear. As he let up on the brake a person riding a bicycle on the sidewalk entered the crosswalk and struck the front of his service truck. Our service vehicles are equipped with Dash-Cams which recorded this event. This proved to be helpful to Lethbridge Police, showing our vehicle’s operation at this intersection.
“That person, for reasons unknown, was agitated and began confronting our technician through his open truck window. Our technician tried to de-escalate the situation; at one point even apologizing for being in the intersection. That was not enough for the cyclist. Without provocation, the cyclist who was concealing a knife in his hand took a swing at our technician through his open window. This resulted in a severe laceration across our technician’s face.”
The incident resulted in 17 stitches to the driver’s face, Cameron later confirmed in his Facebook post.
“I guess the biggest thing is just the safety aspect of our community,” Cameron told The Herald in a follow up interview on Friday. “I think the police did a great job of responding to the incident, and they were there within two minutes max. I just don’t understand the culture where it would be acceptable to slash somebody with a knife. People need to be aware this can happen.”
However, another concerning aspect of the incident in Cameron’s mind is how long it took an ambulance to arrive on the scene. Cameron said when his driver called him he was there in 15 minutes, and the ambulance still had not arrived. As police tried to administer First Aid at the scene, his employee started going into shock from the blood loss.
“The officers commented numerous times he was going into shock from a loss of blood, and it was at least another 10 minutes (after that) before we saw an ambulance,” stated Cameron. “Other officers were pressing the system to see where the ambulance was.”
Cameron feels strongly that a lack of sufficient ambulance resources in the city compounded by a lack of local dispatch service led to the dangerous delay.
“We don’t have the (ambulance) resources when we need them, and maybe with our local dispatch I think we would be able to more accurately assess what ambulance goes when and where, and where the ambulances are at,” he stated. “I think the system we had before was a better system using local dispatch.”
Cameron also thanked a witness on the scene who took it upon himself to track the cyclist for police.
In the statement released to local media Friday afternoon the LPS confirms most of Cameron’s summary of the incident as it occurred, calling it a “collision” between the vehicle and the cyclist at 8:50 a.m. on Aug. 5.
“Immediately following the collision, the cyclist approached the vehicle and slashed the driver across the face with a knife,” the statement summarizes.”The driver was taken to hospital with a significant facial laceration. A witness provided police with a description of the cyclist, who had fled the scene. He was arrested a short time later in the 500-block of Stafford Drive North. He did not suffer injuries requiring medical attention in the earlier collision.
Police confirm Peter Ajang of Lethbridge has been charged with aggravated assault and possession of an offensive weapon.
The Lethbridge Herald did reach out to Alberta Health Services for comment on the incident.
“EMS has thoroughly investigated and there was no delay in dispatching this call,” AHS states. “The initial 911 call saw the nearest Lethbridge Fire & EMS ambulance dispatched very quickly; in 18 seconds. EMS dispatch records show it arrived in 10 minutes. Alberta Health Services would be happy to discuss this more with the management of Thermax Refrigeration and Heating. Any other questions may be directed to Lethbridge Fire & EMS.”
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so does that mean AHS dispatch spent 15 minutes finding out that 2a ave and 13 street north was in Lethbridge and not Calgary or Edmonton. trip from Coaldae took 15 minutes, from Lethbridge 25 minutes, there is a problem!!!!!
Probably the ‘a’ avenue had them confused, along with it being beside Highway 3, but EMS was probably busy on overdose calls, you know the ones, where they rush to help someone, just to see the person get up and walk away and refuse help!
Since the LOPS/Mom’s Stop the Harm lawsuit was announced there was a suspicious rise in overdoses, similar to other times LOPS or the SCS were pushing for support! I don’t believe in coincidence, but organized crime knows the safe drug consumption sites just add to their business since the numbers of addicts/clients always increase with them open!
There is so much that happens on the streets in this city that never makes the news. We would have to expect Lethbridge tv news to be a full hour and the Herald would have to add pages to their editions.
The homeless/addicts now believe they own the streets in this city because they have been allowed to do whatever they want with impunity, since the crown rarely does anything, a slap on the wrist for serious crimes, partly because Ottawa sent out demands to restrict charges of incarcerating indigenous because they are over represented in jails! This is the result!
Expect it to get worse and the unbridled problems increase. Businesses around the Alpha House have encampments along their fence-lines and when the D.O.T, who has been tasked to move these people along, are threatened, so they have to withdraw.
There are so many growing issues on our streets by allowing these homeless/addicts to do whatever they want, they will be more attacks on citizens, some have already occurred, but the it was never reported to media. Authorities have been bound in some cases because of RECONCILIATION, and then the residential school issues, so they backed down.
These people on the streets were not in residential schools! They are damaging Reconciliation efforts by turning public opinion against all indigenous. People are tired of having the parks, streets and neighborhoods taken over, and have their vehicles and property pillaged by addicts and homeless. They are really getting tired and at some point, something will come to the point of explosion where people rise up in anger and start do stupid things that will only make the matter worse!
Why do our tax dollars pay for Justice, for correction facilities and for police when they fail to do their jobs?
We have illegal safe consumptions sites operating in this city and have had them for months, that ignore the rules and then blame the government for the rise in fatal overdoses, when the illegal sites should be looking in the mirror! They are increasing the issues on our streets and should be held accountable, in fact they should be charges with manslaughter!
Make no mistake, the proof was evident when the SCS closed a year ago and the numbers of addicts and fatal overdoses went down, that is until the illegal sites began operating! They should also be sued for the millions they have cost our city!
The matter is only going to get worse so expect more attacks on citizens!