Police in Nanaimo are looking for two suspects of an assault of a man and woman by two men armed with baseball bats.
The alleged attack was reported at about 1 p.m. Saturday and happened near Diver Lake off of Labieux Road and resulted in both victims being hospitalized.
According to an RCMP press release, police were alerted to the altercation after the 39-year-old female victim went to a local business and told an employee that two unidentified men showed up at her tent and, without provocation, started striking her and her 51-year-old male friend with bats the suspects had brought with them.
The woman told police she did not recognize the suspects, who arrived in an orange newer-model car. The assault lasted several minutes before the suspects drove off in an unknown direction.
The victims were taken by ambulance to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries that were consistent with being struck by a large blunt object.
The suspects are described as Caucasians, 25 to 35 years old. One had dark hair and a goatee and was heavy set and wearing dark clothing. The second suspect was also heavy set with a dark beard and wore a bandana covering the lower half of his face.
Const. Gary O’Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman, said it would be pure speculation on the part of police to guess at a motive for the attack.
“It appears that female, she’s of no fixed address, had been camping in that area for some time,” O’Brien said. “The male was visiting her at which point the two suspects arrived and proceeded to assault both of them.”
He said police do not believe the general public is at risk.
“There’s always a risk, when you have two people take it upon themselves to initiate an unprovoked assault with weapons,” O’Brien said. “Having said that, we don’t believe there’ll be any further incidents involving these two, but we are certainly actively pursuing leads to determine who these individuals are and why they did what they did.”
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Nanaimo RCMP at 250-754-2345. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at www.nanaimocrimestoppers.com or call 1-800-222-8477.
RELATED: Crime incidents on the rise in Nanaimo
photos@nanaimobulletin.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
