A man who was taken into custody on Wednesday in connection to the violent attack on a Lethbridge woman last week has now been charged with attempted murder and sexual assault.
The 25-year-old woman was attacked while walking to work at a local restaurant early Friday morning.
Police say the suspect approached her and hit her with a weapon and then dragged her into an alley in the 2000 block of 6 Avenue South where she was sexually assaulted.
She was found by a passerby at about 8:30 a.m. and remains in grave condition in a Calgary Hospital.
Publication bans around the names of sexual assault victims prevent us from identifying the victim at this time.
A neighbour reported to police that he found a man sleeping in his garage earlier and that he asked him to leave. A number of items were reportedly taken from the garage and some of them were found near the victim.
Denzel Dre Colton Bird, 20, of Lethbridge is charged with attempted murder, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and break and enter.
Police say Bird was known to them and but that he and the victim were not known to each other.
“He does have a number of warrants that were outstanding at the time we arrested him for this matter,” said Staff Sgt. Scott Woods from the Criminal Investigation Section.
Woods say the family is happy that an arrest has been made but that the woman still has a long road to recovery ahead.
“To say what they’ve gone through as being extremely tragic would be an understatement so it’s bitter sweet for them, they, you know, they’re happy that we’ve been able to identify who did this to their loved one but they’ve still got a long way to go, they don’t know, as far as the recovery status looks like for this young lady yet of if in fact she’s going to survive this,” said Woods.
The victim’s father-in-law spoke to the media on Thursday about the woman’s condition.
“This is a tragic story, it is, and it will change my son and his wife’s life forever. It will change all of us but not like it will change theirs and I want people to think about that,” he said.
He says they are focusing on the positive and their faith will help them to get through the tragedy.
“This has reached an international level,” he said. “Lethbridge, in itself, has been an absolutely outstanding community. They have rallied behind us and they’ve stayed positive. The comments that we are getting are so positive and I want to commend the City of Lethbridge and the people of Lethbridge for coming together in this time. It’s brought our family together in this time, we’re all working together as family.”
The victim’s family says the young woman is still critical condition and he husband has barely left her side since she was admitted to hospital.
“We still don’t know what it’s going to be. We have highs and we have lows. One minute is positive, the next minute’s negative. We’ve had conversations with doctors to prepare us for the worst, that’s the truth of it, and the truth is they can’t even tell us how it’s going to turn out,” said the victim’s father-in-law. “We trust that the medical professionals are the best in the world, believe me this is hard on them, they walk in, doctors who have been doing this for 30 years, and they break down in tears because they said it’s the worst case they’ve ever seen.”
Woods says they committed a great deal of resources to the investigation and from a police standpoint they are relieved an arrest has been made.
“We as a police service take these matters very seriously and I think this was just a good example of good old fashioned police work, a lot of boots on the ground, a lot of people out with our police service asking questions and talking to people and ultimately led to some really good work by our members, which ultimately resulted in the break that we needed.”
Bird is in custody and is scheduled to appear in court in Lethbridge on Friday.
