A teenager is suffering life-threatening injuries following an assault in a park in Saskatoon’s Willowgrove area last month.
The boy was running in Rouillard Park on April 23 when a man stopped him and asked for a lighter.
“When the youth said he didn’t have one, he was physically assaulted,” said Kelsie Fraser with the Saskatoon Police Service.
“At the time, his injuries weren’t believed to be life threatening, but that obviously changed.”
Fraser said Saskatoon police don’t specifically track assaults on runners, but she did say it’s rare.
“Thankfully it doesn’t happen that often. We’ve had very few incidents in my memories in recent times that involve a runner being assaulted.”
Richard Elgar, the manager of The Running Room, said it’s generally not other people runners are worried about.
“The biggest concern I hear from runners is that they worry about getting hit by traffic,” said Elgar.
He recommends runners wear reflective gear, like vests or jackets. There are also reflective armbands, toques and even lights that can be attached to shoes.
Peter Goode has been running for 40 years. He’s now the president of the Saskatoon Road Runners and encourages people to run with others.
“Sometimes there will be anywhere from two to five or six or seven of us running, and we always feel safe,” said Goode.
Goode added his best tip is an unpopular one: unplug.
“Don’t run with ear phones in and music. I’ve been out running lots of times and we’ve come up behind people and really startled them,” said Goode.
Police are still looking for the man who attacked the runner. If you have any information, you’re asked to call police.
