Senior in wheelchair says she was spat on, attacked on boardwalk

A Sault woman is still in shock after she said she was subjected to a senseless, violent attack on the city’s boardwalk last week.

Victoria Berlinguette — who lives in a seniors apartment complex in the city’s downtown — says she was verbally and physically abused during the afternoon of Friday, May 12 on the portion of the boardwalk between the Art Gallery of Algoma and the Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre. 

“I saw this woman running from where that big blue chair is over to the boardwalk," she said. "There was a group of people with young kids, and a man. She was attacking the man. I thought: ‘What is happening?’”

Berlinguette, who was in a wheelchair at the time, said the woman started attacking her.

“She grabbed hold of the controls on my wheelchair. She started yanking on the wheelchair's computer and pulling out the wires and the wheelchair stopped working. I was at her mercy,” Berlinguette told SooToday.

Berlinguette said the woman started spitting on her face and hair while swearing at her.

She said the woman then straddled her and started punching her chest.

She said she was also subjected to verbal abuse from a man standing near the violent female.

Berlinguette said the attack sent her into a state of shock and aggravated her high blood pressure. 

She said she is appalled that no bystanders came to her aid.

“I was screaming for help and everybody just stood there, arms crossed, and just watched. I don’t know what’s happening to the Sault. It’s not the Sault that I grew up in.”

“I was bawling and screaming for help,” Berlinguette said.

The senior said a friend of hers arrived on scene to assist and one witness called police.

Berlinguette said police told the caller that all personnel were involved in an intensive search for a missing 11-year-old girl that day and that an officer would be on scene as soon as possible to apprehend the violent female attacker.

The woman eventually left the scene.

While appreciating the seriousness of the search for the missing girl, Berlinguette said an officer should have been sent to the scene immediately.

“I thought: ‘Are you kidding me?’ Did they think this woman was going to just stand around and wait? What if she had a knife or a gun?”

Berlinguette said a police officer called her to follow up on Sunday, May 14 — two days after the attack — and only after she contacted a city councillor and a Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board member.

“I feel like the police think that senior citizens are expendable. We don’t matter.”

SooToday reached out to the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service for comment.

"All calls for service are handled based on the priority of calls of the day," wrote Lincoln Louttit, a spokesperson for the service. "With the weather improving, there will be bicycle patrols in the downtown core."

Berlinguette said friends have been checking in on her over the past week.

She said that Motion Sault Ste. Marie repaired her $20,000 wheelchair at no cost.

Two females took Berlinguette and her damaged wheelchair back to her apartment.

A group of St. Mary's College students also assisted after the attacker had left the scene.

However, Berlinguette said she remains alarmed over police failure to respond quickly to the assault as well as the inaction of most witnesses to the attack.

“When I went through this in Clergue Park, there were grown men standing with their arms crossed and nobody came to help me.”

“I thought: ‘What if this was your mother or your grandmother, are you going to let this woman beat me?’” Berlinguette said, her voice breaking with emotion.

“It’s not the Sault that I grew up in. Back in my day if I saw a senior trying to cross the street I would run over and grab their hand and walk them across to make sure they got across to the other side safely. If I was on a city bus I would’ve given up my seat for them. You don’t see that anymore.”

She said many seniors don’t go through Clergue Park these days, concerned that violence and crime linked to the drug trade has moved into the downtown core.

Berlinguette said she wants to see more police downtown, adding she is skeptical of police assurances that bike patrols will be ramped up in the downtown.

“I thought nobody would ever lay a hand on me until this happened and then I realized how vulnerable I was. I couldn’t defend myself. You’ll never catch me going through that park ever again.”

“What happened to the Sault?” Berlinguette asked.