By Greg Higgins

Stabbing victim’s family looking for answers from RCMP

Mar 24, 2016 | 12:28 PM

It’s been over a week since a man was stabbed by the North Battleford Library and some neighbors are still unaware the incident even happened.

Leslie Carl Lonesinger was jumped and beaten outside of his sister Rita Lonesinger’s apartment building March 15 at roughly 6:30 p.m.

“I didn’t know I was bleeding,” Les said. “The ambulance driver took me into the ambulance and said ‘man, you’re bleeding,’ and that’s when he told me I had been stabbed.”

Lonesinger was stabbed in the back and under his right armpit. He said was jumped from behind and kicked over 20 times in the back and head. When he attempted to get up, the assailants fled the scene.

He along with his sisters, Rita and Roxanne Lonesinger feel that the incident is being ignored by the public and the RCMP because of a drive-by shooting which happened the same week and because they are Aboriginal.

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“I’m not trying to be racist or anything but if it was a teenage white girl, there’d be protest,” Rita said.

“Maybe they’re hoping it will be like that, like it is in the states,” Roxanne said. “Let the black people kill each other off there, we’ll let the Natives kill each other off here.”

The Lonesingers believe the way the RCMP has handled the case has been unprofessional. They claim the day after the incident, Leslie was at Rita’s place drinking tea and an officer came into the apartment without permission and without addressing himself as police.

“First thing he did was he looked at the cup and then looked at me and asked me how long I had been drinking. I don’t drink and I don’t do drugs, I don’t do any of that stuff,” Leslie said.

“I don’t know if they are trying to be racist,” Roxanne said trying to rationalize her brother’s situation. “I know our reputation of being Native isn’t good right now. There are 21 reserves around North Battleford and most of them are uneducated and from broken homes.”

Rita believes she knows who attacked her brother and is frustrated that the police will not make any arrests.

RCMP officer Chad Doucette said the sisters have approached police with their suspicions, but arresting a suspect isn’t as simple as it seems.

“We have to gather enough physical evidence before we can make an arrest. It’s understandable that they want things to happen very quickly…unfortunately this isn’t one of those cases where we can just go arrest someone right away,” Doucette said.

According to his sisters, the attack on Leslie must have been a case of mistaken identity because their brother is an important figure in the community. Leslie is a university graduate who has worked with the Living Faith Chapel, helped out with numerous fundraisers and has taken youth up North to canoe and learn about nature.

The Lonesingers are afraid that if something isn’t done soon that an incident like this might happen again and the next person might not be as lucky as Leslie was.

ghiggins@jpbg.ca

@realgreghiggins