Saskatoon woman randomly stabbed in torso while shopping downtown

The victim of a random stabbing in downtown Saskatoon last Thursday is sharing her story about the terrifying attack in broad daylight.

She is one of two women who were stabbed by a random attacker in two separate areas of the downtown core around 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon May 25.

The first incident happened on the sidewalk on 20th street at the southside of Midtown Plaza, where she was going shopping.

That’s where the first victim, Sumika Zaidi, says she remembers someone running from across 20th Street and behind her. She then felt a sharp pain.

“The shock is disturbing my life,” Zaidi told CTV News.

Zaidi is a 25-year-old newlywed who came to Saskatoon from Pakistan. She says she is afraid now and didn’t want her face shown.

“I can’t take this situation out of my mind. It happened so rapidly that I can’t understand what just happened to me in 20 to 25 seconds, it was so quick,” she says.

She realized she had been stabbed and the woman kept running down 20th Street eastward. She recalls the attacker had a smaller knife in her left hand and a larger knife on her also and was very deliberate, not appearing high or intoxicated from what she could tell.

“She was running. I just saw her. I know she was in her senses,” she says.

Zaidi is now recovering from a stab wound just above her hip which required twelve stitches.

She can’t walk much yet and was told by doctors that it will take about two months to recover. But she says it’s the emotional toll that will take the longest to heal.

Being from Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, it baffles her that this attack happened in Saskatoon.

“We think about foreign countries, and we think that we are safe clean and I just cam here and I come here and get stabbed, it’s so terrifying,” she says.

Police confirmed in a news release that this wasn’t the only attack reported and that another woman, a 35-year-old, was also stabbed a few blocks away near 2nd Avenue on 20th street a short time later.

A 28-year-old woman was located by police in a building at 300 2nd Avenue which is the address of the Lighthouse Assisted Living.

The woman charged in both attacks is facing two counts of assault causing bodily harm, possession of a weapon for the purpose of committing an offence and carrying a concealed weapon as well as breach of probation.

Zaidi has no plans to move back home and realizes this was very random.

“Three and a half months goes smoothly, and I enjoyed the city, but what happened last Thursday is so terrifying for me. I can’t’ go outside without someone,” she says.

Her family calls her every day to check in as they are shocked and devastated by what happened. Her parents are planning to come visit in July.

She wanted to get her story out so that others can be more aware of their surroundings and not have to go through what she did.

She does admit though, that she couldn’t have done anything differently to prevent the senseless random attack.