Agassiz Mounties say a 53-year-old woman was dragged out of her wheelchair by a purse snatcher Friday, then struck her head on a sidewalk so hard she had a seizure.
The woman, who is disabled, is now recovering at home and is “stressed out a bit, but she’s handling it a little better than I thought she would,” her husband Kent Gundrum said.
She was travelling in her electric wheelchair on Morrow Road in Agassiz when she was grabbed from behind and had her purse stolen off her shoulder, Cpl. Dwayne Farlin said.
He said the suspect, described as a man or woman in blue jeans with a blonde ponytail, kept running, resulting in the victim being pulled forward out of her wheelchair and onto the pavement, banging her head and suffering a seizure.
When the woman came to and tried to get back into her wheelchair, she called for help but no cars stopped and nobody came to her aid – an unknown male even walked by, leaving her on the sidewalk, according to Gundrum.
“I had finally seen her from the patio across the street. I thought somebody had hit her in the face,” he said. “She managed to get back in her wheelchair on her own…She got back home and she was very, very upset and confused.”
Emergency crews eventually transported the woman to Chilliwack General Hospital.
Gundrum said he and his wife have lived in the small Fraser Valley community of Agassiz for close to six years and the incident is unusual.
“It’s such a small town and it seems to be peaceful most of the time…there’s nothing going on here,” he said.
“It’s very tragic and it’s upsetting, especially taking advantage of somebody in a wheelchair,” Farlin said.
Mounties believe witnesses were in the area at the time of the attack, which happened at around 4 p.m. near a busy intersection.
They’re working with the victim to locate a suspect, but are asking anybody who witnessed the incident to contact Agassiz RCMP at 604-798-5416 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
