Winnipeg teen attacked with machete recovering after surgery: sister

Cracking down on machete attacks How the province is looking at regulating machete sales following a horrific attack on a 15-year-old boy. CTV's Danton Unger explains.

A 15-year-old Winnipeg boy is doing well after undergoing surgery to repair injuries he sustained in an alleged beating and machete attack.

It happened in the 300 block of Selkirk Avenue Saturday night Winnipeg police said.

"In all honesty, this is one of the most serious attacks that we've investigated involving a machete," said Const. Dani McKinnon.

The boy's sister, who is not being identified to protect the victim's identity, told CTV News her brother was up and talking Wednesday.

“He’s in much better spirits than you'd expect,” she told CTV News. “He was cracking jokes with his brothers and just trying, trying to be as normal as he could be.”

She said he told her what happened that Saturday night when he woke up.

She said her brother and a group of friends approached a woman who appeared to be intoxicated and in need of help. She said a couple of people then chased after the group, and they all ran away. She explained they caught up with her brother first.

“He was attacked and robbed for his cellphone,” she said, “Brutally beaten and slashed with a machete.”

She told CTV News her brother’s skull was fractured, and he endured 20 hours of surgery to reattach nerves “almost everywhere in his body.”

“He's got over 20 staples in his back,” she said. “He's got stitches in his ears. They had to reattach fingers.”

She said his arms were slashed down to the bone.

“His arms are so bandaged up he can't use his hands,” she said, “He’s very, very lucky, very lucky to be alive.”

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with aggravated assault, robbery, and possession of a weapon. The charges have not been proven in court.

Legislation coming in fall: Wiebe

When asked about the restriction of machete sales in Manitoba, Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said new legislation is coming in the fall.

"We can restrict the availability of machetes in our community. So we're going to do that. We're going to make that step," he said.

Wiebe added the province will be working with retailers on how to implement restrictions at the point of sale.

"They don't want to see these weapons out in their communities either,” Wiebe said.

Last year the province laid down rules to limit the sale of bear spray. Wiebe said that has been successful.

'Inviting trouble'

Rick Shone, owner of Wilderness Supply on Isabel Street, told CTV News he doesn’t carry machetes anymore for several reasons, one being he doesn’t see the application for a big, sharp knife in downtown Winnipeg.

“We're not chopping down, like, bamboo shoots or chomping through rain forests. So we just, we don't carry them here,” he said.

Shone said he’s also stopped selling other items like knives and sunglasses over safety concerns.

“I hate to say, it's inviting trouble, but it kind of is,” he said, “And so for the moment, we haven't really come up with a good plan on how to do this safely for our customers and our staff, and that's the biggest concern for me.”

Shone said while licencing stores helped in the case of bear spray, he thinks it is going to be difficult to regulate the sale of machetes because you can easily buy one online.

“It's very hard to regulate unless you simply say let's just make it illegal,” he said, “I think it’s something that you could do, but you'd have to have national buy-in on that.”