A father in New Westminster, BC, speaks out about an unprovoked attack on his family last week, in which a stranger allegedly tried to take his baby.
Dustin Lawton said he was walking with one-year-old Freya and her mother Amber at Carnarvon and 6th Streets in downtown New Westminster on Jan. 14 at about 7:45 p.m., when a man was in the middle of the street.
“I tried to turn away from him and he jumped in front of me,” Lawton said in an interview. “He grabbed the pram with two hands and tried to snatch it from me. He had the pram right off the ground. “
He said the man grabbed at Freya’s hood and it was then that his instinct to aggressively protect kicked in.
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“It was then that I believed I had a yellow bow in his head and Amber got hold of the pram,” says Lawton. “In the same order of what happened, I grabbed him and threw him upside down on his head.”
Lawton said he used his feet to ensure the man remained on the ground and then walked away to prevent himself from being charged with assault.
The man tried to get up and Lawton said he pushed him back. He and his family then recoiled completely, and the suspect got up, walked a little further and started “hitting this guy’s car”.
Lawton said the vehicle’s occupants got out. One swung at the man and the other tripped over him. Police arrived shortly thereafter.
Robbie Morrison, who lives in an apartment at the intersection, watched the final part of the event.
“I heard a noise and I thought there was an exchange of words … I got up and looked out my window and at that moment the gentleman – a driver – jumped out of his car and with this other gentleman started splashing, “he recalled.
“There were a lot of people who crowded together to take videos and such.”
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New Westminster police have arrested the suspect and according to a police news release, the suspect spat on one of his arrest officers in the process.
Police later identified the man as 46-year-old New Westminster resident Jamie Maclean, and charged him with one count of assaulting a police officer and one count of mischief.
“It was a random attack, an isolated incident. “Something like this has never happened before in my memory in New West,” said sergeant. Sanjay Kumar told Global News.
Maclean was known to New Westminster police, Kumar added, for “relatively small files.”
Given the seriousness of this incident, however, Lawton said Maclean should face more serious charges than a single charge of mischief related to the attack on his daughter.
He is also upset Maclean was released from custody before a court appearance next month.
“I just do not understand how he is out the next day on an unlawful charge and he is spitting on a police officer, he has an assault charge for it, but he has a promise to appear,” Lawton said.
“What does he say he is not going to do to anyone else? Or if I run into him again, what will happen then? ”
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Lawton said he is in “shock” over the whole incident and does not feel it is safe to walk his daughter downtown more. He does not know what would have happened if he had not been with Freya and her mother that day to intervene.
“Imagine if he punched my daughter, or if he actually got her out of the pram… he could have killed her easily. “For the cops to let him go, it’s just unbelievable,” said Lawton. “I want to see more justice… not a charge of assault or a charge of injustice.”
New Westminster police said they were still investigating the case and gathering evidence, and it is possible that more serious charges could be recommended against the suspect in the future.
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Reference-globalnews.ca