Sitting in her vehicle at an Abbotsford intersection on Sunday morning, a woman from Chilliwack witnessed what she described as an “awful scene out of a movie.”
The woman, who asked to not be named, noticed an elderly man waiting for the bus.
“The man was dressed in his Sunday best suit,” she told The Progress. “It was 9:45. a.m. I was across the street admiring this old man standing tall, facing the sunshine.”
There was another, much younger man standing about 10 metres away.
“I noticed the younger man started to run at the older man,” she said. “I hoped he would run past, but he stopped and started viciously punching him in the face repeatedly. The old man didn’t or couldn’t fight back, and he eventually went down.”
• READ MORE: Chilliwack man charged after violent assault of senior, 85, in Abbotsford
The woman said the driver of a vehicle tried to stop the assault by driving closer and honking the horn. That’s when the assailant fled into the path of the car. He rolled off and kept running.
Other witnesses followed the young man until Abbotsford Police Department (APD) officers arrived on the scene and took over.
“The old man was bleeding, with his teeth and dentures broken,” she said. “He was taken away in an ambulance.”
Abbotsford Police Sgt. Judy Bird said the incident in the area of 33555 South Fraser Way west of Bourquin Crescent East led to the arrest of a 19-year-old Chilliwack man.
The victim was an 85-year-old man who suffered cuts to his face in addition to the dental damage.
Found in a nearby ravine was 19-year-old Brandon William Janveaux who has been charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.
Bird said she did not know what weapon Janveaux is alleged to have used, but more than one witness said it was brass knuckles.
Janveaux currently has two other serious charges before the courts. He is set to go to trial on Jan. 16, 2020 on charges of occupying a vehicle knowing that a firearm is present, possessing a firearm without a licence, and carrying a weapon or prohibited device on Sept. 30, 2018 in Chilliwack.
He also faces a trial March 20, 2020 for two counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of breaching his bail conditions on June 17 of this year in Chilliwack.
He is due in court in Chilliwack Dec. 3
on the Abbotsford assault, and is likely to face new breach charges.
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