A 67-year-old Campbell River man says he holds no ill will toward the person who attacked him in a Courtenay park.
Serge Melancon had just finished a shower at a nearby recreation centre when he was backing out of a parking lot near Lewis Park. A man approached, asking to borrow a phone. He claimed someone nearby was overdosing and needed to call 911.
Melancon agreed to help but refused when the man insisted on taking the phone. The disagreement quickly escalated into a violent fight.
“As the ambulance answered, he said [expletive] that, opened the door, and whack — we were on,” Melancon said.
The assailant leaned into Melancon’s van and began punching him through the window. Melancon’s wife, Deirdre, witnessed the attack while sitting in the passenger seat. Despite being a double amputee, she tried to protect her husband using a coffee cup, and when it broke, she used a portable fan to fend off the attacker.
The man then pulled Melancon from the vehicle by his leg, throwing him to the ground. After a brief pause, the attacker stepped away.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘What’s going on?’ ” Melancon said.
The commotion drew attention from other park visitors. The couple was near a pool filled with children, which delayed others from intervening.
RCMP officers arrived to find Melancon on the ground with severe facial injuries. A suspect was arrested nearby.
A 29-year-old man has been charged with aggravated assault and robbery. A witness identified him at the scene.
Insp. Scott Mercer of the Comox Valley RCMP described the attack as senseless. Melancon said it felt entirely random. The couple had only planned a quick stop at the recreation centre before continuing a camping trip.
Victim Impact Services later informed Melancon that the suspect has schizophrenia and is a trained boxer. Melancon believes this may explain why the attacker stopped after he was on the ground, as though the fight were a sparring session.
“It didn’t feel like he made a conscious decision to attack an old man,” Melancon said. “He had the face of someone in a boxing match.”
Despite the severity of the assault, Melancon said he could laugh about the incident shortly afterward. His bruises and cuts are fading, though he still has a four-tooth gap after his dental bridge was broken. He hopes to replace it soon, with the help of an online fundraiser started by the couple’s daughter.
Melancon also suffered a knee injury but expects a full recovery.
Reflecting on the attack, Melancon expressed sympathy for the suspect. “If anything, he is as much of a victim as I am, and the system is not there to take care of him,” he said. “His demons will likely haunt him for the next 50 years.”
