Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 2015
Source: Metro (Edmonton, CN AB)
Copyright: 2015 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/Edmonton
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4475
Page: A1

FAMILY WASN'T TARGET: POLICE

Violent Attack Leaves Couple and Children 'Traumatized'

Some of the children in the home had to witness their father being 
viciously assaulted. Acting Det. Anna Sinclair

A young family in southwest Edmonton is traumatized after a violent 
home invasion in which police believe they were mistakenly targeted 
Friday night.

A total of five suspects were involved in the assault on a 
36-year-old man outside his home on McAllister Crescent, which began 
around 11:20 p.m. Friday night.

Initially, three masked men confronted the man when he went out to 
the family's vehicle. He was threatened with a firearm, then severely 
beaten and dragged back into the home, according to police.

While in the home, one of the suspects assaulted the man's wife while 
she held their toddler, police said, causing her to drop the infant, 
who wasn't injured.

Four suspects proceeded to attack the man, while a fifth restrained his wife.

"The whole family is traumatized and shaken," said acting Det. Anna 
Sinclair, of Southwest Division, in a news release. "We are asking 
that the suspects do the right thing, and turn themselves in."

The three other children in the house got out of bed and when the 
five suspects saw them, they fled the home through the back door.

The men fled east in the alley toward McAllister Loop.

Metro attempted to contact the family, who asked for their privacy 
following the attack.

"We are asking residents who live in the area where the 
break-in/assault took place to please check their yards for any 
suspicious items which may have been discarded by the suspects as 
they fled through the alley," Sinclair said in the release. "Please 
do not touch the items, and call police immediately."

The man was treated by paramedics and taken to hospital. He has since 
been released and is recovering at home.

Investigators believe the attackers incorrectly identified their 
target, and that the incident was drug-related.
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