‘Lucky to be alive’

Jennifer Lunn says her 25-year-old-son nearly died saving her life.

“He was stabbed three times. He was stabbed in the neck and in the arm,” Lunn said.

“He stopped someone from stabbing me in the back of the neck in my vehicle. It was a terrible experience. I thought he was going to die. He’s lucky to be alive.”

The incident happened early Tuesday morning near the top of Mount McKay in the Fort William First Nation community. Paramedics rushed both Lunn’s son and a 40-year-old-man to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre with what was reported as undetermined injuries.

Anishinabek Police Service, OPP and Thunder Bay Police Service officers all responded to a call reporting an injured man around 5 a.m.

Lunn said she was offered a ride by a man she knew to the scenic lookout but upon reaching the top, the man then attacked her and her son.

The mother and son fled and flagged down a passing vehicle for help.  Lunn said her son was bleeding and she had to apply pressure to the wounds by using a fleece.

She said all that was going through her mind was keeping her son alive.

“If it wasn’t for two people driving by, we wouldn’t be here right now,” she said.

“I had to stop that vehicle and get my son to the hospital.”

The 39-year-old grandmother said her son, who she wished to remain unnamed for now, has a child and is expecting a third in the spring. He works as a bartender and is still at the hospital after being in surgery for several hours.

To make matters worse, Lunn said she wasn’t even aware what was happening with her son once he was taken away by ambulance because the police had taken her into custody.

She spent the first couple of hours after the assault behind bars because she says she was judged unjustly by the police for previous associations.

She added it was the first time she ever spent a night in jail.

“They arrested the two gentlemen who saved my son and me and they arrested me as well,” she said. “They put us in custody and I wasn’t even told how my son was doing during surgery. I wasn’t even allowed to see him. They finally released me at five in the morning and dropped all their charges. This is heartbreaking. We all did nothing and it’s like we’re being punished for my son saving my life.”

She said she’s now talking to a lawyer about what legal steps she can take in the case.

OPP refused comment on the specifics of the case, stating APS is heading the investigation, who also refused to comment on specifics. No charges have yet been laid.

 

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