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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Sitting on the hospital bed he has set up in the living room of his Gitzel Street home, long-time Yellowknifer Jerry Blanchard's voice is remarkable calm as he tells the story of a vicious late-night attacker who jumped out of the bushes and beat him with a baseball bat.

Jerry Blanchard sits on a hospital bed set up in his living room. Injuries he sustained after being jumped by an unknown attacker with a baseball bat on Sept. 8 continue to make it difficult for him to navigate the stairs in his home. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

A little over one month after the attack, Blanchard's physical wounds are beginning to heal although his pain - as well as the memories - are still raw and real.

"I still have nightmares about it," Blanchard told Yellowknifer on Tuesday.

Blanchard, 48, was heading home with a group of friends after a night out between 2:15 and 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 8, when he realized he had dropped his cellphone. Remembering that the group had been horsing around near Mildred Hall School, Blanchard opted to go back alone to try to find his phone.

"I was on my way back coming down Matonabee Street, and near the last house on the left-hand side before you get around the corner there's a bunch of bushes right there. This guy came out of the bush with a baseball bat and I said, 'Really? You want to do this?' And the next thing you know, I got slugged across the head, and then I could feel him beating on my leg," he said.

Blanchard, who works as a cab dispatcher, said that the attack lasted between five and 10 minutes. He remembers waving one hand above his head, trying to flag down a cab that he had seen on the street earlier. In the end, one of the cab drivers who works for his company pulled up and scared the attacker away.

Neither the driver nor Blanchard were able to provide a full description of the assailant.

"All (the cab driver) saw was the back of his coat and all I saw was a hoodie and a bandana across his face," said Blanchard.

During the assault, Blanchard's head was split open above his eye and the femur bone on his left leg was broken in two places. He still cannot carry weight on his leg, although doctors are hoping he will be able to in four to five weeks.

After the attack, Blanchard said his left foot was bent all the way over his head, so he grabbed his leg and put it back in place. The pain of moving the leg caused him to pass out, and he remembers very little else of his trip to Stanton Territorial Hospital or the ensuing medevac flight to Edmonton.

He said doctors in Edmonton told him most people would have died of shock because of the severity of the leg injury.

To this day, Blanchard has no idea who attacked him or why.

"As far as I'm concerned it was random," he said.

When police spoke with him as he lay recovering in the hospital in Edmonton, Blanchard said he felt it was more of an interrogation than an interview, which made him uncomfortable. Rumours calling the attack drug-or biker-related make him angry.

"I haven't been involved in dope in 20-some years, so it's not drug-related," he said. "And yeah, I am a biker but I've never made any enemies with any bikers in town. And then they said it was a targeted hit. Well, I have no enemies in this town, so why would anyone do that?"

Blanchard grew up in Yellowknife after moving to the city in 1979, but moved south in 1994 and returned to the city last year with his wife Treena Blanchard.

"Yellowknife has not changed," he said. "Well, it's gotten bigger and people have gotten more, how do I say it, sketchy. There's a lot of crack (cocaine) around this place, right? But it hasn't changed my opinion of Yellowknife. Yellowknife is Yellowknife. It's still home."

Yellowknife RCMP are continuing to investigate, according to Const. Amanda McGillivray.

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