Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 9, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Three bystanders who observed a 22-year-old woman being assaulted inside her Sissons Court residence on Friday called RCMP and one man intervened.

"One of the people resides in one of the other apartments there and was just heading out of his residence and to his vehicle and the other two I believe were doing some work in the parking lot area," said RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich.

While the bystanders awaited for RCMP to arrive, one man entered the residence through the window to restrain the assailant until police arrived.

"He indicated that he checked that there was no weapons prior to taking the action that he did," said Dreilich.

"He felt that the assault was violent enough that he had to go to her aid."

The woman received bruises to her face head and shoulders during the assault. The accused was taken into custody and later released under the condition not to contact the woman.

Impaired driving reports not exceptional for the season

Occurrences of intoxicated drivers have increased in the summer months, but according to RCMP it is nothing too unusual. The crime map for the period of June 23 to July 6 has listed 20 instances of impaired operation and care and control of a motor vehicle.

"Some of which may be charges, some of which may be unfounded, some may have resulted in a 24 (hour) suspension, some might be a suspected impaired driver and we made patrols and couldn't find the vehicle," said Const. Dreilich. For the summertime there are generally a high number of reports so its "not off the scale" as far as the increase in the number of impaired motor vehicle cases or suspected cases.

Police officer assaulted in parking lot

At 5 a.m. on Sunday RCMP responded to a call about a disturbance at Ptarmigan apartments and found a 29-year-old woman drunk and bleeding in the parking lot.

"She cut her arm breaking a window. She resides at one of the apartments there and it's my understanding that she broke the window in her own home," said Const. Dreilich.

The woman was yelling and swearing as police attempted to calm her and told her that an ambulance was on its way to give her medical treatment.

The woman became enraged and combative with police and she was subsequently arrested. She was taken to Stanton Territorial Hospital for medical attention and then to the RCMP Yellowknife detachment.