‘I have fear of everyone,’ victim of accused serial sex attacker says Young woman working alone downtown among fast-food workers targeted; 34-year-old man charged with multiple offences By: Tyler Searle Posted: 1:52 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022

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This article was published 14/12/2022 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A young woman is struggling to sleep after she was locked inside her workplace with a violent offender now charged with multiple counts of sexual assault.

“‘God help me’, I thought… I was just locked inside, and nobody could hear my (calls for help) at that time,” she said, recounting the fast-food restaurant incident days after the attack.

“He was so tall. I don’t know how I would control this man.”

On Dec. 10, the 21-year-old woman was working alone at the restaurant near Kennedy Street and Graham Avenue. A man entered the business at about 11:30 a.m., locked the door behind him and attempted to wrestle her to the ground.

She agreed to speak anonymously with the Free Press, and provided CCTV footage of the crime.

“‘God help me’, I thought… I was just locked inside, and nobody could hear my (calls for help) at that time.”–Victim

In the video, a large man wearing a dark purple hoodie walks toward the woman. She attempts to tell him to leave, but he ignores her pleas, stopping within inches of her face. He appears to be speaking to her.

“Everyone is asking what he said to me, but I don’t remember anything. He just pushed me to the back,” she said. “Mentally and physically I was just totally blank… I was not even able to take in oxygen.”

When she reached for her phone to call for help, the intruder grabbed her arm and they began to struggle. Fortunately, she was able to make her way to the front of the store and press a panic button near the register. The attacker fled.

Police called her shortly after and arrived roughly 15 minutes later.

On Thursday afternoon, Winnipeg police announced 34-year-old Beau Joseph Normand had been charged with two counts of sexual assault, four counts of forcible confinement and one count each of assault and uttering threats.

The charges stem from a series of incidents in which a suspect entered four fast-food restaurants in the span of a few weeks, locking the door behind him and “uttering sexual threats” before chasing female employees through the building, the Winnipeg Police Service said.

The incidents occurred Nov. 21 in the 600 block of William Avenue, Dec. 8 in the 300 block of Graham Avenue, last Saturday in the 300 block of Kennedy Street and Sunday in the 1800 block of Main Street.

The victims were women in their 20s and all but one was alone at the time of the crime. Nobody was physically injured, police said.

Police became aware of the sexual nature of the crimes after the final incident and quickly worked backward to establish a link, WPS spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon said.

“The other reports did not come in as sexual events, so it wasn’t until (investigators) spoke again with witnesses and victims in a more detailed fashion that they learned this is a pattern, there’s a sexual component to these and it’s believed to be the same suspect,” she said.

“The other reports did not come in as sexual events, so it wasn’t until (investigators) spoke again with witnesses and victims in a more detailed fashion that they learned this is a pattern, there’s a sexual component to these and it’s believed to be the same suspect.”–Const. Dani McKinnon

The WPS did not release an advisory to warn the public, because once investigators realized they were connected, they identified a suspect and arrested him “basically overnight,” McKinnon said.

CCTV footage helped identify the suspect and pictures of him were distributed to members of the force. Patrolling officers recognized him from the internal report and arrested him Wednesday afternoon in the 800 block of Main Street.

He was then turned over to the sex crimes unit, McKinnon said.

Although she was physically unharmed, the woman at the Kennedy Street location said the event has left her shaken.

“Now, I am afraid,” she said. “I have fear of everyone… even at night I am not sleeping without a light.”

“It is not safe, especially downtown.”–Victim

The woman believes the suspect had been planning the attacks; she said he had been in the restaurant as many as four times over the last week. He asked for water on one occasion and asked for a job on another.

“He was not afraid because he knew I was completely alone,” she said.

She moved to Winnipeg from Brampton, Ont., about a year ago, and now her parents, who live in India, want her to leave Manitoba.

“It is not safe, especially downtown,” she said, adding she has had several experiences where “unwell” people come into the restaurant and cause a disturbance. She has tried calling the Downtown Community Safety Patrol on numerous occasions, but said they have never responded.

She said she’s grateful police have someone in custody.

The owner of the restaurant has agreed to transfer her to another location where she will not have to work alone downtown. The business often has only one person on staff because it has been hit hard during the pandemic and has not been busy, he said.

Police are asking anyone with information about the case to call sex crimes unit investigators at 204-986-6245.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca