Erika Sherk
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 7, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - There have been at least three other incidents in the last month where groups of youth have attacked individuals, according to RCMP.

Two of the incidents resulted in the hospitalization of three young men. Those two happened the same night, Feb. 24.

Three youth were charged with assault in connection to the violence, and another has assault charges pending.

The first incident on Feb. 24 happened outside the Winks convenience store on Franklin Avenue. A 24-year-old man was knocked to the ground, punched, and kicked by at least four people just before midnight, according to Yellowknife RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich.

He had been walking out of the store into the parking lot, where a group of young people were sitting in a vehicle.

"We don't know yet what was said but words were exchanged," said Dreilich.

The victim told RCMP that at least four youth, ("though there may have been others present," said Dreilich) then got out of their vehicle and proceeded to beat the young man as a group.

He was knocked to the ground, punched and kicked, she said.

He went to Stanton Territorial Hospital where they held him overnight, though his exact injuries were not known by police by press time.

While police officers were speaking to the young male victim, two other injured young men arrived.

"RCMP members were interviewing the first victim, then interviewed the other two and realized the stories matched up," said Dreilich.

The second two said they had been assaulted by the same group about 45 minutes after the Winks assault at a house party on Horton Crescent, according to Dreilich.

RCMP went to the house party and arrested four people.

Three young men were charged with assault, said Dreilich.

Of the three charged, two were from Edmonton, and one was a Yellowknife resident, said Dreilich.

The victims of the house party beating had been involved in an altercation with the group around midnight. It escalated into a fight, said Dreilich.

"It appears that at some point one of the victims was hit on the head with a bottle," she said.

Their injuries were not known by RCMP by press time.

The police want to speak with the many witnesses who were at the party.

The group did not know their first victim and it is unknown if they had any connection to the second two, said Dreilich.

In an unrelated incident, an 18-year-old youth was surrounded by several young assailants and spat upon outside the A&W fast-food restaurant on Franklin Avenue on Feb. 8.

Dreilich said one assailant reportedly tried to punch the victim in the head but missed.

The victim reported an ongoing feud between him and his assailants, aged 15, 23, and 28, she said. No charges were laid in that incident, said Dreilich.