Telly Bear was left with a gash on his face after being attacked. Photo: Facebook
A Cree man who has a fractured arm after being attacked says he’s joining a walk to bring awareness to racism.
The healing walk will start in the north end of Calgary to Airdie, 7 km away on Saturday.
“If I have to walk by myself, I’ll walk by myself,” said Telly Bear, who was with his wife when the attack took place.
“I’ll do what I go to do to make it known so it doesn’t happen to somebody else.”
On Nov. 30, Bear said he and his wife Judy were taking a bathroom break at a gas station while heading home to Calgary from his uncle’s funeral in Saskatchewan.
That’s when he said a white man with face tattoos pulled up in a parking spot next to them.
Bear said the man, who was in a black hoodie, parked so close that his wife couldn’t open the passenger door of their Chevy Tahoe.
“He was really like mean mugging, you know, like giving a real dirty look through the window,” the 32-year-old Bear recalled.
As his wife got into the car, the man used racist language and said, “You think you can just park anywhere?” before telling them to get out of Airdrie.
Bear said they drove away, but the man followed them.
When Bear came to a stop at a red light, he said the man came out from his car carrying a baton and began to hit the passenger side of his car where his wife was sitting.
Bear said he had to jump the red light for his wife’s safety. They went around in a loop and ended up at the same stop light.
“I’m waiting there, again at the red light, and then sure enough, he’s back behind us again. This time he comes running to the driver’s side trying to hit it, but before he could I pull away again,” Bear said.
The man continued following the couple, so Bear decided to pull over and confront his attacker.
“I just stopped on the road there, and I was about to get out and confront him when he drove his car into the back of my truck,” Bear said.
Bear said the impact was so strong that the front of the man’s Dodge Journey crushed “just like a beer can, like mushed straight in.”
Bear said that’s when his attacker hit him on his head.
“He hit me with that bar about 8 times before it broke. He was hitting me so hard with it that it broke into pieces,” he said.
“I have a hairline fracture on my arm. My fingers are tingly and numb. My arm seems kind of crooked.”
Bear suffered a gash on his face and said his wife has whiplash because of the collision.
“It’s kind of like a double whammy, right, I’m already mourning the loss of my uncle,” Bear said.
“My wife is a university student and she’s doing finals now and she can’t really do her work now.”
He adds he hasn’t told their three teenage children about the attack because it’ll worry them.
“All they know is that we were in an actual car accident, that’s all they know. They’ll figure it out eventually,” Bear said.
“My wife’s very uneasy about going anywhere or even just driving.”
Bear said he is considering taking legal action against the man for the pain he caused him and his family.
RCMP said Monday that 27-year-old Darrian Chief of Airdrie is charged with assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
Chief has since been released from custody on conditions and is to appear in Airdrie Provincial Court in January.
