Two men beaten in brutal attacks

From the Kingston Whig-Standard Website

Student, cabbie victims of assaults


A St. Lawrence College student was sent to hospital early yesterday morning following a brutal beating in the city's west end.

It was the second violent attack police investigated on the weekend. A 43-year-old Kingston man is facing assault charges after a attacking a cab driver early Saturday morning.

The college student wasn't robbed, but his attackers left him lying bleeding and beaten in a snowbank along Bath Road, police said.

The three men arrested and charged in the assault were drunk at the time, police said, and had never met the victim.

"Nobody knew him. These guys just picked him out," said Sgt. Alex Forsyth of the Kingston Police.

Forsyth said one of the attackers didn't even recall the attack after sobering up overnight in a police cell.

Police said the victim had gone to Ottawa with some friends for a stag party and returned to a home on Days Road before deciding to call it a night. He told his friends that he was going to walk home.

The 28-year-old man, who is from Kingston, was walking along Bath Road near Tanner when the attack took place.

Police said the victim heard someone run up from behind him before he felt a blow to the back of his head. The attacker then punch him in the face.

An Amey's taxi pulled up near the attack and let out two men. Police said the two men grabbed the victim and held him to the ground while the original attacker punch the victim in the face and body.

The beating r about a minute, police said, before the men hopped back into the taxi and drove off.

T he victim was left in the snowbank

with a deep cut on his lip, severe bruising to his temples, a possible broken nose and burns from being rubbed against the roadway, police said.

A witness at the scene called police. Officers were able to stop the cab carrying the three assailants. Forsyth said officers noticed blood on the men's hands, clothes and footwear.

Two of the men are 24 years old, the other 36. All are from Kingston.

They were taken for a bail hearing yesterday. The three men have been charged with assault causing bodily harm.

Police said the taxi driver was not involved in the attack.

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Police said the attack on the cabbie early Saturday morning stemmed from a dispute over the fare for the ride, which amounted to less than $8.

Police said a Kingston and Amherst Taxi driver picked up a fare around 3:50 a. m. Saturday at Concession Street and Leroy Grant Drive. The passenger told the driver to take him to a home on Rosemund Crescent near Sir John A. Macdonald and John Counter boulevards.

When the taxi arrived at the home, the male passenger started a dispute over the cost of the ride -$7.50. Police said the passenger then confronted the driver and became violent.

Police said the man threatened to harm the driver, even shouting at one point that he would "punch [the driver] out."

Police said the passenger then grabbed the driver and hit him several times in the side of the head with a closed fist.

The attacker then grabbed the keys out of the ignition of the car and threw them into a nearby snowbank. He then grabbed the victim by his hair and started punching the driver in the head again as the attack tside the vehicle.

The driver was able to push the man into the snowbank, which slowed the attacker down for only a moment, police said. The attacker stood back up, police said, and ating on the taxi driver.

Police said two females in the area pulled the attacker off the driver before officers arrived.

Police said the driver had a bloody lip and marks from punches visible on his temple.

Police said the 43-year-old accused was drunk. He was held in a police cell overnight and released with conditions, with a date to appear in court in March.

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