Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Police are asking the public for help locating a suspect who allegedly sexually assaulted a Yellowknife teen while she was walking home shortly after midnight on Wednesday, Sept. 19.

This composite sketch, released by Yellowknife RCMP Monday, depicts the man believed to have sexually assaulted a Yellowknife teen walking home along Franklin Avenue after midnight last Wednesday. - image courtesy of Yellowknife RCMP

Yellowknife RCMP released a sketch of the suspect Monday evening. A composite artist was brought up from Edmonton earlier that day.

"We're hoping that somebody can come forward with more information than what we know so far and hopefully the (sketch) will resonate with somebody and they will be able to call us with a tip as to who it might be," said Yellowknife RCMP Staff Sgt. Brad Kaeding.

The sketch is only a representation of the 15-year-old complainant's memory of the attacker, stated police. They emphasized that the description of the suspect should be kept in mind. The assailant is believed to be aboriginal, with long dark hair and a scar near his left eye or temple.

On the night of the assault, he is believed to have been wearing a black leather jacket and dark track pants or jogging pants and wore his hair in a ponytail.

At about 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, the teenaged girl was walking down Franklin Avenue near the Discovery Inn, heading toward Old Town when a man she said she did not know grabbed her, forced her into an alley and sexually assaulted her on a set of steps of the Legion building, RCMP stated in a press release on Sept. 21. The girl was then let go. She contacted police at about 1:15 a.m.

She received medical attention but was not "seriously physically injured," according to police.

Kaeding would not go into further detail about the attack itself other than to say that it definitely qualified as a sexual assault.

"We realize that does cover a wide range of activities, but this would definitely fall within the definition of sexual assault," he said.

These types of incidents - where random acts of violence occur between strangers - are rare in the city, and residents should not be afraid of walking down the street, said Kaeding.

The number of violent assaults and sexual assaults that Yellowknife police respond to annually remains "way too high," he said.

"However, the numbers of assaults between people who do not know each other are extremely low compared to other types of assaults that we do have."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.