St. Jean, 45, was outside of a Mac’s convenience store on Thursday when he reportedly encountered a 24-year-old man, Kyle Douglas Giroux, threatening a young boy and calling the boy a racial slur. St. Jean intervened and the boy was able to get away. St. Jean told Giroux, who was on probation, that the altercation was over, and it seemed to be.
But witnesses said when St. Jean turned to go into the store he was attacked from behind. He struggled to get over the surprise attack but wound up on the ground whereupon Giroux stomped on the Good Samaritan’s head, knocking him unconscious.
His wife, Dawn Mackay, spoke to both the CBC News and the QMI Agency and detailed his condition, and it is not good. She said that he had to be sedated and was put into a coma on life support. He was transferred to University Hospital in Edmonton.
On Friday they tried to take him off life support and wake him but abandoned the attempt because his body’s reaction told them he was not ready for it. They tried again Saturday but again had to abandon the attempt.
“He’s still fighting,” MacKay said about his reaction to the attempts to wake him. “He’s waking up halfway, and then fighting – like, flailing his arms. They tried again this morning to wake him, and it took three nurses and one nurse on top of him to hold him down.”
At their home a block from the store when it happened, Mackay said that upon being told about it she was not surprised. Her husband, she said, would never tolerate someone being picked upon or called a racial slur, and were it to happen again she said he would again rush in to help.
The distraught wife said she’s overwhelmed with the support they’ve received, from family and friends in Nova Scotia, but also from Grande Prairie, where they have only lived one year.
She told the CBC the local support “has just completely blown all of our minds.” That support includes a crowdfunding campaign that’s raised $5,000. Further, Westjet offered to fly their son and his girlfriend out from Nova Scotia to be there for his parents, and did so, for free.
Giroux is charged with aggravated assault and failing to comply with a probation order and will remain behind bars until his first court appearance on April 8.
