La Ronge was an extremely busy place to be an RCMP member. For at least one of the years I was there it was the busiest police jurisdiction in Canada in terms of Criminal Code charges per member. Even at that there were days that just rose above it all.
Early one Saturday morning, after an already busy shift, we began getting a series of serious calls. About 5:00 am we received the first of three assault with weapons complaints in twenty minutes. The final one, the subject of this story, turned out to be multiple assaults with a weapon.
When we got to the first one, a stabbing, the ambulance arrived about the same time as a second call also a stabbing. With the victim off to hospital and not in danger of dying, the suspect having fled but well identified, we quickly gleaned the information we needed about witnesses etc and headed off to the next call.
As the crow flies the next call wasn't that far away, but because of the layout of the land it was a much farther drive to get to the call. The ambulance promised they'd be there as soon as they dropped victim number one off, and we fairly flew getting to the scene.
It was another stabbing, but the wound appeared less serious that the first incident. The suspect was a different person and Rob gathered info while I went to look for him. I quickly found out that he had hopped in a canoe and headed across the lake to another part of town, and the third call came in. Leaving the victim in care of friends until the ambulance arrived and getting assurances that we'd get a call should the suspect return we returned to downtown. It was now 5:20 am.
The victim had called from a local hotel and was waiting for us in the lobby. He related how he was at a party at Apartment 21 of a row of townhouses/apartments, with a girl sitting on his lap. Having a strange girl cuddled up to you on your lap at a party has never resulted in any problems so he was enjoying the party up to that point. Or rather up to the point her ex-boyfriend hit him over the head with a beer bottle.
Our victim didn't know either person, they were from a community farther north and when he tried to say he didn't want any trouble, the ex-boyfriend pulled a knife and threatened him with it. So he did what any sane person would do, ran up the stairs to the kitchen and jumped out the second story window, taking the screen with him.
We confirmed that the party was at #21 and sent him on his way to the hospital, on foot as he had no really injuries but for a sore head.
When we headed to the apartment Rob and I came across an extremely drunk, very badly beaten young man staggering on the road. He appeared oblivious to the fact that his eyes were almost swollen shut along with a number of other injuries, or to the drying blood that was all over him. He asked for a ride home. When we asked him what had happened he said "Oh yeah. This tall guy from out of town beat me up with a 2X4. I didn't do anything." He had been at the party and we put him in the back seat and went to try and stop further damage.