Machete attack in Winnipeg leaves man with shattered bones, slashed tendons
'Shame that we need to suffer this in Canada,' says victim whose family fled violence in Brazil
WARNING: This article contains descriptions of a machete attack and an image of an injured limb.
One of the only possessions Ariel Martes wasn't robbed of during a brutal machete attack in Winnipeg earlier this month was his Apple watch, and that might have saved his life: He turned its band into a makeshift tourniquet.
Mates, 22, was heading home from work in the early hours of Oct. 11. He got off a bus and was walking along Roch Street in the North Kildonan neighbourhood when two men approached him at the corner of Cheriton Avenue and asked for the time.
He remembers it was exactly 12:04 a.m.
Martes and the two men walked off in different directions but within seconds, the men turned back and went after Martes, chasing him along Cheriton toward Rothesay Street.
At Rothesay, Martes had a gun pointed at him as the men demanded he give them everything he had.
He handed over a cellphone and AirPods, but before he could do anything more one of the men jumped forward and "starts beating me with a machete," Martes told CBC News.
Martes threw up his left arm to block the attack, a move that protected his upper body, but the weapon cut into tendons on his forearm and wrist while also shattering some wrist bones, Martes said.
He was also struck on his left leg but not as severely.
The machete attacker then demanded Martes hand over his backpack, "but I could not raise my arm because my hand was already injured," he said.
Instead of pursuing it more, the men ran off.
"I'm left to bleed in the street one kilometre away from my house," Martes said. "I knocked on two doors and tried to stop two cars but nobody stopped."
He agonizingly made his way home, losing blood along the way, before reaching his house at about 12:20 a.m.
Martes had no strength left to open the door and shouted. His brother found Martes collapsed on the deck.
An ambulance arrived in five minutes, and Martes was rushed to the Health Sciences Centre where he had surgery.
He also met with police at his bedside to give a report. A police spokesperson confirmed the major crimes unit is investigating but no arrests have been made.
Martes said he remembers the stress of the situation even more than the pain: "The adrenaline of being under stress and walking a kilometre to get home," he said.
He feared he might not actually make it home, the bleeding was so bad. Then he remembered his still had his watch. He tightened the band to squeeze his wrist to slow the blood loss as much as possible.
"It's going to take awhile but the [expectation] is that I will fully recover from this," Martes said.
He's undergoing occupational therapy and has been told that if things progress well, his cast could come off in about six weeks. But a full recovery is still a long road ahead.
Martes and his family came to Winnipeg from Brazil six years ago to escape the violence in that country, where his brother was once robbed.
"It's just unfair. I go to work, I do my stuff, I do nothing wrong. It's just a shame that the city that I once thought was safe, that once I thought was a refuge for me and my family … it's just a shame that we need to suffer this in Canada and Winnipeg," he said.
Martes said he wants people to be careful because "this can happen to anyone, anytime. I just wanted people to be more aware."
"People should be able to go in the street at night, but unfortunately we need to be more fearful on the street right now."
Martes had been working as a server at a hotel restaurant, something he called his "bread and butter," but the injuries will keep him from that for some time.
When he does go back, he doesn't think he'll ever work late nights again.
There have been at least three machete-related attacks this month, the most recent happening Friday in Winnipeg's West End, where a 56-year-old man suffered life-altering injuries.
New rules for machetes
At the start of the month, Manitoba's Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the government was looking to tighten the rules around the sale of machetes, swords and other long-bladed weapons.
A bill currently before the legislature would restrict the sale of such weapons to people over 18 with photo identification. It would also require retailers to keep the weapons away from open public access — in order to reduce theft — and to retain records of sales for at least two years.
The restrictions are similar to measures earlier imposed on bear spray that have proven successful, Wiebe said.
But Wayne Balcaen, the Progressive Conservatives' justice critic, told reporters at a scrum on Monday the bill is "very taxing" on retailers who sell machetes and other long-bladed weapons, while falling short in targeting people who use them to commit crimes.
"I am absolutely not satisfied whit it," he said. "What about the people that are doing break and enters and stealing these machetes?" he said.
"There's no prohibitions put in place under this legislation for people possessing these [weapons], they are relying on the Criminal Code of Canada and ... could be much, much more robust on this."
Balcaen added that within areas of provincial law, the bill could have asked for a prohibition to carry a long-bladed weapon when someone doesn't have "legal recourse" to have them.
"That would give police and peace officers the justification to then seize these weapons ... and get them off the street," he said.
With files from Arturo Chang