SASKATOON – A 37-year-old man is in a medically induced coma fighting for his life in a Saskatoon hospital after a violent attack by several people Saturday night in Rosetown.
The brutal attack against Andre Grey lasted about 20 minutes and his cries for help went unheeded, his mother Alice El Khirani told SASKTODAY.ca in a phone interview Tuesday.
“It’s terrible, I really want people in Rosetown to know that as a small community, when you hear someone screaming ‘Help me, help me,’ don’t just sit there and listen to that, phone the police right away. If you hear somebody yelling or screaming, for goodness sake phone the police.
“It was after the fact that someone said ‘I heard someone screaming,’” she added.
El Khirani urged the community to be more proactive and organize a neighbourhood watch program.
After the assault, Grey was able to walk to a nearby friend’s house and she texted his mother. El Khirani was about a block away and rushed over. Having worked years in the health field, she recognized the signs of a possible brain injury in her son and immediately took him to the Rosetown hospital. After a doctor saw him at the Rosetown hospital, he was transported right away to a Saskatoon hospital by ambulance.
El Khirani, along with her husband and other son who also lives in Rosetown, followed in a vehicle behind the ambulance.
“We chased after the ambulance,” she said.
At the Saskatoon hospital, Grey's situation worsened with a brain bleed and he started going into seizures. He was placed into a medically induced coma and doctors inserted a tube to drain blood and fluid from his brain. From the assault, one of his many injuries include a broken skull.
On Wednesday, the doctors are scheduled to bring Grey out of the coma.
“If he does good overnight, they are going to wake him up tomorrow,” El Khirani said on Tuesday. “That’s going to be scary. We don’t know if he’s going to have seizures again.”
She spends her days at the hospital sitting beside her son but feels helpless.
“I can’t do anything. I can’t make him heal fast. I can’t.”
The last three to four days since the attack have been a blur for El Khirani who buried another one of her sons two years ago after he died in Rosetown from cancer. But she appreciates the support she has received from the community of Rosetown.
“My co-workers are sending me messages, the nurses, our pastor, and there is a lot of praying from the church.”
A couple from the Rosetown church recently moved to Saskatoon and have been at the hospital supporting Grey’s family as well.
El Khirani praised how the Rosetown RCMP handled the assault against her son.
“The police in Rosetown were really, really on the ball and quick to getting these people.”
El Khirani emphasized that nobody deserves such a vicious attack, and especially someone with Grey's kind-hearted spirit.
“Things like this shouldn’t happen to anybody. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody deserves that. There was no reason to do that to him.
“Andre has the biggest heart,” she added. “He was homeless at one time in Oregon so he knows what it’s like to be homeless. Whenever we come to the city and he sees someone who is homeless, he always says ‘mom you have any change?’ and he’ll grab the change from the coffee cup holder and give it to whoever is standing there. That’s how Andre is.”
El Khirani knows her son has a long road of rehabilitation ahead.
She is concerned about how difficult Grey's situation is for her 85-year-old mother, who lives in Saskatoon, and for Grey’s six-year-old son who keeps asking to see his father.
“It’s so sad. He’s always asking ‘can we call my dad, can we call my dad?’”
Rosetown RCMP charged 33-year-old Corey Rushkewich and 29-year-old Randy Rushkewich, with aggravated assault. Corey Rushkewich is additionally charged with pointing a firearm and robbery.
RCMP say that their investigation determined there was an altercation between a group of individuals in the 1st Street West area in Rosetown just before midnight on Nov. 11. A man stole a cellphone from a woman and pointed a firearm at several individuals during the incident. A male victim was then assaulted and is now being treated in hospital for serious injuries.
On Tuesday morning, El Khirani and her sister, who lives in Saskatoon, went to the first court appearance of the two men charged in connection to her son’s attack. She said she was appalled with what she perceived as their lack of remorse.
“That Corey guy came in and his girlfriend was sitting in the front and he’s smiling at her and blowing her kisses and she’s blowing him kisses back.”
The Crown is opposed to their release and they were both remanded in custody after their Nov. 14 appearance in Saskatoon Provincial Court.
Corey and Randy Rushkewich's social media profiles depict them making Terror Squad Killers and Indian Posse street gang hand signals.
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