Image Credit: shutterstock.com

Glen Warner tries to spend his time getting to know the people he crosses paths with during his shifts as a security guard, but sometimes, it can escalate to violence.

The 73-year-old security guard was assaulted while working in downtown Kamloops earlier this month, the second time he's been punched in the face while on the job.

While working at Riverside Park in 2020, he was punched for asking a man to put out a cigarette, resulting in a surgery for his broken eye socket. This time, he wound up with a concussion that put him out of work for a month.

"I didn't get out of the way fast enough," Warner said.

On Dec. 5, he was punched in the nose after he tried to usher a group from a building entrance at 275 Lansdowne St.

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Three people were huddled in the doorway, where one woman was handling drug paraphernalia, which he said was around 10:40 a.m. The two men obeyed and left, but the woman was reluctant.

"'If you want me to leave, phone the RCMP,' she said. So I stepped back started dialling the RCMP," Warner said. "She lunged forward grabbed my phone out of my hand."

Warner said he tried to grab his phone, which landed on the floor. By that time, other security guards had shown up and a receptionist in the building had already called the police.

"Maybe she felt intimidated. She started to go out of the building and I thought she was going passed me, but she changed direction and punched me in the nose, then pushed me back on my chest," Warner recalled.

An RCMP officer showed up at the building within about five to 10 minutes after the group left, but didn't pursue the woman who assaulted him, he said.

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"The only thing he had to say is it won't got to court and (police) won't pick her up right away," Warner recalled. "He did nothing but talk to me about not charging her."

Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Chris Kienzle confirmed there was an assault reported on that day, but RCMP haven't forwarded any charge recommendations to Crown prosecutors. He also said there were no notable injuries in the report.

Warner wanted to stay at work that day, telling his bosses he felt fine. It wasn't until that evening he was dizzy and had his wife rush him to Royal Inland Hospital.

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Warner doesn't know the name of the woman who gave him a concussion, but he took a photo of the person just after he was punched on Dec. 5, 2022.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Glen Warner

That's where he learned he had a concussion and was later advised by his own doctor he shouldn't work until at least Jan. 5.

Although he'll be returning to work soon, Warner will be working two fewer days a week and won't be stationed downtown anymore, so he won't be mingling with street-entrenched members of the public.

"I made friends with all the homeless in the park before and now down here at Third and Lansdowne," he said, adding he became known as the "candy man" because he'd sometimes hand out treats.

"I'm maybe too trusting," he said.

Warner doesn't know the name of the woman, but he's hoping anyone with information will contact Kamloops RCMP at 250-828-3000 and reference file number 2022-43204.

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