Taylor Ossevorth of West Kelowna was attacked by strangers at around 1 a.m. July 5.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Salinna Ossevorth
July 06, 2022 - 8:00 AM
A West Kelowna family is appealing to the public for clues after their 16-year-old son was beaten up by two men at around 1 a.m. yesterday, July 5.
Mom Salinna Ossevorth is shaken up by the incident and frustrated not knowing who is responsible for the vicious assault.
“My son feels powerless, to have grown men attack him like this,” she said. “As a parent you want to help them but you feel powerless and you want to make these people pay but you can’t find them.”
Ossevorth said the attack happened at a baseball diamond across from the Shannon Lake store where her son, Taylor and his two friends were hanging out listening to music. That’s when two men rolled up in a white Dodge truck yelling at the kids before leaving the truck and running after them.
All three teens fled, and Taylor hid in a bush where the men found him.
“Taylor was beat unconscious and when he woke up he went running down the street banging on doors but no one answered,” Ossevorth said. “A couple in a car passing by stopped to help him and stayed with him until an ambulance arrived.”
Ossevorth said her son is not a big person and has never had this happen before, that he is a good kid just hanging out with his friends at what she thought was a safe place.
“He was supposed to be home at midnight and we thought okay he is late and he’s going to be disciplined, but we didn’t think he was in danger,” she said.
Taylor suffered a broken nose and bruises all over his back.
“They did a CT Scan and didn’t find any skull fractures,” Ossevorth said. “He has lines on his forehead like the imprint of an object and his back is bruised. He doesn’t remember all of what happened during the attack.”
Ossevorth wonders if this was a vigilante type of attack.
“There has been crime in the area and we suspect the men were taking their anger out on the wrong people.”
A police report has been filed and the family is waiting for information.
Meantime the Shannon Lake store is checking for video footage for any clues.
“We are hoping someone saw something,” Ossevorth said. “We don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”
Police are looking for two bearded male suspects seen in a white Dodge Ram leaving the area after the assault. Investigators would like to speak with the people in a red hatchback that was in the area at the time.
Anyone has information which would assist the investigation is asked to contact the West Kelowna RCMP at 250-768-2880. To remain anonymous please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or leave a tip online at www.crimestoppers.net.
— This story was updated at 5:23 p.m. Wednesday, July 6, 2022, with new information from RCMP.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2022