Dutchman swarmed in Halifax, people just drive by...

[Grumpy Cat]

This makes me ashamed to be from Halifax. I apologize to the Dutch on behalf of the citizens of Halifax. Although, many Haligonians get swarmed and you rarely hear a peep of it, now that a foreigner was, maybe Peter Kelly will do something about it.

I feel even more the need to move back home. If my friends and I saw this going down, that kid wouldn't have been beaten so badly.

Victim’s cries for help ignored

Netherlands native living in Halifax upset that motorists drove by as 2 men beat him

Although Halifax newcomer Mark Scheffers sports nasty forehead and facial cuts after getting mugged Tuesday night, he doesn’t feel the city is all that bad.

"Stuff like this happens in big cities," the 22-year-old Dutchman said in an interview Wednesday.

Scheffers is upset, however, that motorists drove by without stopping to help as two men kicked and beat him on the ground.

It was about 8:30 p.m. and he had just finished an eight-hour shift at a Tim Hortons on Mumford Road.

Leaving the doughnut shop in the West End Mall parking lot, he walked past the Metro Transit terminal on Mumford Road — Scheffers said it has no night buses to his area — to his stop on Bayers Road at Vaughan Avenue.

He waited there alone, listening to his headphones for five to 10 minutes and then four people walked past and checked him out.

"Maybe 30 seconds to a minute later, two guys came back," Scheffers said.

They spoke to him, but he had his earphones on and didn’t hear what they said.

When he removed his earphones, one said: "We don’t want to stab you. Just give me your stuff."

Shocked and scared, he ran.

"I just got my backpack, pretending I was gonna give them my backpack, and . . . started running toward the intersection at the Halifax Shopping Centre."

Unfortunately, he tripped and fell and the two attacked him.

"They started beating me on the face."

Scheffers was yelling for help.

He thinks the attack lasted a minute or maybe two, although it felt much longer. He saw cars drive by while he was yelling for help.

"I was really upset by the fact that there were people just driving by in their cars and they could clearly see what was happening and did nothing, just kept driving."

Thankfully, a man waiting for a bus across the street did help.

The man yelled that he had called police and then started walking toward the scene. The attackers ran off, but not before the attackers grabbed a cellphone Scheffers had dropped.

Scheffers didn’t get the Good Samaritan’s name.

"I want to thank him."

The police arrived and paramedics took Scheffers to hospital. He had cuts, nausea and dizziness but was otherwise OK.

Scheffers is in Halifax for a year before he starts a university program in history back home. He is staying with his aunt and uncle and said muggings are rare in his home of Zwijndrecht but more common in larger cities such as Rotterdam.

"It can happen anywhere, any time," he said.

In addition to improving his English, he said living in Halifax has made him a bit "more open."

"People here are more friendly and say ‘Hi.’ They’re not rude at all, generally."

His aunt, Megan Scheffers, said she was upset while driving to see her nephew at the hospital.

"I’m feeling very responsible," she said. "I want him to enjoy this year."

She is angry about what happened and even called Mayor Peter Kelly to complain about the fact that her nephew had to use a bus stop at night instead of a nearby transit terminal.

The robbers are described as black males believed to be 17 to 20. Both are about six feet. One wore a white hoodie and dark sweatpants and the other had a green hoodie and dark pants.

Const. Brian Palmeter, a Halifax Regional Police spokesman, said those descriptions are somewhat generic, but officers will do what they can.

"We’ve spoken to three witnesses and we’re following it up with the community response officers in the area to see if they may have any information about who’s responsible for this."

The community response officers have connections to the area and may be able to recognize the suspects, Palmeter said.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1220551.html