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'It was just chaos': Woman shaken after random assault in Brandon parking lot

Dakota Ojibway police officer charged with assault

A woman from northern Manitoba says what was supposed to be a happy trip to Brandon for her kids turned into a nightmare after she was randomly attacked in a parking lot on Tuesday — an incident she captured on video.

The woman, who CBC News has agreed not to identify for fear of further harassment, said she was attacked after she heard a man yelling while she was getting the five kids she was with — including her own three children, ages three to 16 — out of their vehicle at a condo complex on First Street North.

"It just all happened so fast," the woman, who is still trying to come to grips with the incident days later, said in emotional interview. She said she didn't hear what the man was saying and thought he was talking to someone else.

Her focus at the time, she said, was getting her kids inside because one of them needed to use the washroom. Before she knew it, she said the man was right in her face.

"I felt really threatened," she said. "I didn't understand why I made him so angry."

She said she took out her phone to videotape the encounter, fearing no one would believe her if she reported it.

Captured on video

The woman captured 41 seconds of the incident on video. A man wearing a helmet knocks the camera to the ground one second in. That's followed by 40 seconds of screaming, yelling and children crying.

The video has been seen more than 70,000 times since she posted it to Facebook.

"He pushed me right back. My chest still hurts from where he pushed me," she said. "I fell right back onto my head. I saw stars."

A man can be heard in the video yelling at the woman overtop of a crying child, including calling the woman a "dumb piece of s--t."

"Why did you threaten my mom," another voice is heard saying.

The video stops after the woman asks someone off camera to grab the phone and call 911. A man who witnessed the event and tried to intervene had already called 911, she said.

"It was just chaos," the woman said. "My babies were all screaming and crying and I couldn't calm them down."

The woman wants to thank the man who called 911 and tried to help.

Brandon police were called to the complex on Tuesday evening for a report of a man who appeared to be intoxicated assaulting people. In a news release on Wednesday, police said the man was upset that his motorcycle had fallen over and the woman wouldn't help him, and that he then blocked the doorway to the complex.

Police said a 27-year-old man was arrested for assault and jailed until he was sober. He is expected in court in August. CBC News has contacted the man for comment.

The allegations against the 27-year-old haven't been proven in court.

Children traumatized

The victim said the incident has deeply affected her kids and she was trying to get them in to see a Winnipeg therapist on Friday.

"They're afraid to go anywhere," she said. "We were supposed to take them to the [Red River Ex] one more time. They don't even want to leave the place where we're staying."

She said she's never encountered an incident like this in all of her time in Brandon. She previously studied nursing in the city and was in town visiting a relative who attends Brandon University.

The woman said her family is now scared to go back to Brandon and she is still trying to process what happened.

"I don't understand why my kids needed to hear this stuff because we take good care of our kids," she said. "We work so hard to provide for them.

"I just don't understand why I was attacked."