Hammer attack nets eight months

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on July 28, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

What started out as simple theft, turned into robbery after a 22-year-old man stole a bicycle then struck the owner with a hammer.

Simon Danny Scout took the bike about 1 a.m. on March 1 of last year, only moments after its owner left it outside the A&W restaurant on 2 A Avenue North.

The bike’s owner had finished working a shift at the restaurant and rode away on his bike, but returned shortly afterward to return a key. He leaned his bike against the building while he ran inside, and when he returned only moments later, he saw Scout riding away on the bike.

The man chased the fleeing Scout and caught up to him, then pushed him off the bike. Scout retaliated and struck his victim on the shoulder with a metal object and was then punched in return.

After another man wearing black clothing approached, Scout tried to strike the bike’s owner a second time, but he was punched instead. Then the man began taking photos of both men with his phone, and they fled.

Police found the accused shortly afterward and found in his backpack a small hammer he had used to hit his victim during the robbery.

Scout, who has a lengthy criminal record, was sentenced to eight months in jail and ordered to submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Databank. He is also prohibited from possessing weapons for the rest of his life.

Lethbridge lawyer Claudia Connolly explained her client suffers from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and has been impacted by his family’s involvement with residential schools and his own addictions.

“There’s been a lot of substance abuse,” Connolly said.

She pointed out many of his family members have died and “Danny’s kind of a lost soul living primarily on the streets of Lethbridge.”

Although sentenced to eight months in jail, Scout was given credit for time already spent in remand custody, leaving him with 54 days to serve. Additional charges of assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and carrying a concealed weapon, were withdrawn.

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