'I just want him off the streets,' says woman beaten by road rage attacker with hockey stick
Drew Anderson | CBC News | Posted: December 13, 2016 12:30 PM | Last Updated: December 13, 2016
Karalie Red Old Man fears her assailant will hurt more women if he's not caught
Karalie Red Old Man is haunted after a stranger smashed her minivan windows with a hockey stick and then beat her with it as her daughter looked on in an apparent road rage attack in a Calgary parking lot last week.
"I normally like to laugh and encourage others," said Red Old Man, who was taken to hospital in an ambulance with injuries to her face, jaw, lips and teeth after the attack last Wednesday.
"I'm still trying to do that, I just can't as much."
The violent road rage incident occurred when two men in a silver BMW aggressively followed Red Old Man, even rear-ending her vehicle before boxing her in in a parking lot.
One man then assaulted her, pulling her head through her open window and smashing it against her car, she says.
When she reached for a hockey stick, he grabbed it and proceeded to smash her minivan windows, with her daughter sitting inside the vehicle.
The incident attracted headlines — and outrage — nationwide.
- Road rage suspects elude police as Calgary mother recovers from hockey stick attack
- Calgary mom beaten by road rage attacker with hockey stick
Yet even though Red Old Man snapped photos of the men allegedly involved in the attack and their car, police haven't been able to track them down and again appealed to the public for help on Monday.
They're looking for two men in their early 20s, with dark brown or black hair and medium builds. They drove away in a silver two-door BMW with Alberta plates.
"The fact that he's still out there and I'm not sure how close they are to catching him, and then thinking of the future and having to go to court and deal with that. I'm just overall scared and I don't know how to be," Red Old Man told CBC News between sobs.
She said her three other children witnessed some of the assault as well, arriving with her husband near the end of the beating.
Facing the reality of the assault
Red Old Man breaks down when asked to recount the events of that night. She has trouble describing what she experienced.
She said the two men were brothers, and that while one assaulted her, the other tried to get him to stop until Red Old Man's husband showed up and started fighting with her assailant.
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"My husband, he got the upper hand and he slammed him to the ground and that's when his brother started getting worried for his sibling and he attacked my husband as well."
Red Old Man said she wasn't sure what to do. She went to the back of the BMW and tried to get a photo of the licence plate.
It was at that time, she said, that onlookers said police were on the way and the two men fled, almost running her over in the process.
"My husband was screaming at me to get out of the way: 'He's going to run you over.' So, I wasn't thinking and I just tried to jump out of the way while still trying to get the pictures," she said.
'I just don't want this to happen to another woman'
Red Old Man has no peace of mind with the two men still at large and said she's not only worried for herself, but for other women who might encounter them.
"I just want him off the streets, him and his brother. I don't want him to be able to think that he can do this to women at all," she said.
"I just don't want this to happen to another woman, or her family, or her children. She might not be so lucky if it does."
Red Old Man said police are busy chasing down all the leads they've received and she's heartened by all the support she's received.
But the trauma remains.
"It's pretty hard to live day by day with all the media attention and sometimes I just don't know I'm going to be able to get through the day, that I won't be able to get to the end of it," she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 403-266-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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