Woman attacked in broad daylight

By Peggy Revell on June 7, 2018.

Medicine Hat police are looking for a suspect who attacked and sexually assaulted a woman who was out for a walk Tuesday afternoon.

According to police, at approximately 3:15 p.m., a woman was walking on the paths near Division Avenue N and Seventh Street NW when a lone man grabbed her from behind and pulled her to the ground. The victim screamed for help and struggled with the man, which caused him to let go of her and flee the area.

Officers were called a short time later and conducted a search of the area, but were unable to locate the offender. The victim was not seriously injured.

The suspect is described as a Caucasian male, approximately 20-30 years old, 5-foot-8, average build, wearing a blue hoodie and brown pants.

“I can tell you from 20 years of policing experience, this is extremely rare, especially in our community,” said Staff Sgt. Chad Holt. “In our community we don’t come across this very often. So we are taking it very seriously. We’ve dedicated a lot of resources to following up on this, and doing our best to identify who the offender was.”

There are ways to reduce risk, said Holt. This includes travel in pairs or small groups, sticking to busier paths, paths with lots of visibility, avoiding secluded areas and being aware of your surroundings and what’s happening around you.

“In this particular case where it happened, it was off the path system where the top of Division Avenue meets Altawana. It’s kind of isolated from view of the public,” he said. It was also during the day, he said, so it’s not a day/night thing as the lighting conditions “were excellent.”

Anyone who was in the area at the time and has information that could be of assistance are asked to contact the MHPS at 403-529-8481 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800 -222-8477 (TIPS).

“Sometimes people see something and they kind of think of it as nothing … often it is nothing, but sometimes it turns out to be valuable,” said Holt.

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