The public helped apprehend a man who assaulted a woman in downtown Kelowna on Wednesday afternoon, July 12.
Around 1 p.m., the Kelowna RCMP responded to a call of a group of 12 people tackling a man and holding him down on Mill St at Queensway. After officers arrived and investigated, it was determined the group tackled the man because they witnessed him assault a woman just moments prior. He was subsequently arrested.
As the police gathered more information, they found a woman was walking on the sidewalk while on the phone when the man started yelling and swearing at her out of nowhere and began to follow her. As he followed, he caught up to her and punched her in the head, knocking her phone away. As the man continued to grab the woman’s hair and spit on her, that’s when the bystanders swarmed to save the woman. She suffered minor injuries from the assault.
The man is appearing in court on the afternoon of Thursday, July 13 for charges of assault and mischief.
“We never ask or encourage our members of the public to become physically involved when a crime is taking place,” said Kelowna RCMP Media Relations Officer Cst. Mike Della-Paolera. “However, in this particular case, the actions of these individuals assisted someone in need, stopped the assault from continuing and allowed police to make an immediate arrest”.
The RCMP believe this was an isolated incident and are asking any other witnesses or anyone with video footage to come forward with the file number 2023-39940.
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