Don Urquhart

Times-Chronicle

RCMP confirm they are investigating a possible stabbing incident that occurred around 10 p.m. Saturday night in Osoyoos.

Cpl. Chris Manseau with the BC RCMP media relations division told the Times-Chronicle that the incident occurred in the vicinity of Legion Beach. The victim sustained injuries from a knife and is currently in Penticton Hospital. The extent of those injuries is unclear at this time and Manseau cautioned the information is only preliminary at this point.

Manseau said local RCMP were made aware of the situation by the BC Ambulance service which had dispatched two ambulances to the scene. The first contact the RCMP made with the victim’s wife was at 11:30 p.m. at the couple’s residence.

A woman identifying herself as the wife of the victim – which cannot be verified at this point – posted on a local Facebook channel detailing the incident. The Times-Chronicle has reached out to the woman but has not received a reply at the time of writing.

In that post, she said a group of 6-8 young people somewhere in the range of 14-17 years-of-age asked her husband for money while they were walking home from Haynes Point, but he was not carrying any.

“They attacked him, they shanked him in the stomach, his legs his head and he sliced his finger open when he was trying to grab [the] knife from the kid,” she wrote. She also said he was hit in the face with a skateboard and verbally abused by the group, particularly by two young women with “absolutely vulgar vocabulary”.

Also in the post, the woman said she would remember the faces of the perpetrators saying: “I know your faces, and I will locate you.” Manseau told the Times-Chronicle that this conflicts with the statement given to RCMP officers last night when the victim’s wife said she was unable to identify the perpetrators. “I don’t want to speculate on the unconfirmed social media report,” Manseau added.

Anyone who was in that area around 10 p.m. last night and may have seen something is being urged to contact the Osoyoos RCMP.

More details will be released by Osoyoos RCMP later today, or early tomorrow Manseau added.