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Kelowna  

'Help me, help me!'

Alanna Kelly

UPDATE: 7 p.m.

A Kelowna couple are being called heroes after they helped a woman flee from a man who was allegedly assaulting her.

The frightening incident occurred just before midnight on Friday, while the woman was walking near Richter Street and Elliot Avenue in Kelowna.

Heather and Keith Casley were in their living room when they heard someone yelling for help.

“Help me, help me, help me!,” Heather recalls hearing.

They looked out on their deck and saw a woman in a physical altercation with a man.

“He was dragging her into the bushes,” Heather told Castanet News.

Immediately, Keith ran out to help the woman but she was able to escape just before he got to her.

“I ran outside to see this girl sprinting extremely fast past us yelling ‘help me’ in a bloodcurdling scream,” Heather recalls.

Keith then ran after the man and Heather remembered thinking "What did I just witness?"

The suspect was not found and police are continuing to investigate.


ORIGINAL: 6 p.m.

A reward is being offered by the owner of a local skateboard shop for anyone who can provide information on a predator.

The man approached a woman on Friday night who was walking near Richter Street and Elliot Avenue just before midnight.

Initially the woman didn’t feel threatened by the man, and the man “spoke casually” to her. But things quickly changed.

Police say the man chased after the woman, tackled her to the ground and dragged her onto a property in the 2000 block of Richter Street.

She was able to break free and run, but the man chased after her.

A driver in the area saw the woman running and she was able to jump into the Good Samaritan’s vehicle.

Police searched for the man, but couldn’t find him and instead found his skateboard left at the scene.

The skateboard comes from the Bakery Boardshop on Pandosy Street in Kelowna.

Store owner and Kelowna mayoral candidate, Bobby Kennedy, spoke exclusively with Castanet News on Sunday, saying he investigated the very board that police found.

“We looked around to see whose board that was and it turns out that board was stolen this year from City Park skateboard park during the Centre of Gravity festival which we organize,” he said.

Kennedy said they looked further and couldn’t find who stole the skateboard.

“I want to extend my support to the woman that was attacked on Friday night,” he said, while speaking to Castanet alongside his two daughters.

He is personally offering $1,000 on behalf of the Bakery Boardshop for any information on the suspect that leads to justice.

“This is about keeping people like these little girls safe, keeping people like yourself safe,” he said. “Let's band together… let’s make Kelowna safer.”

Police say the woman sustained minor physical injuries in the assault.

Police describe the attacker as a Caucasian male, who is possibly part Filipino, in his early 20s with a medium build and shoulder-length brown and black hair.

RCMP are now asking people in the area to review their surveillance footage, and anyone with information is being asked to contact them.



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