A woman was severely injured at this central Nanaimo shopping plaza in a machete attack on Tuesday, May 10 at about 8 p.m. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Disturbing incident

Woman injured in machete attack in Nanaimo parking lot

May 11, 2022 | 3:53 PM

NANAIMO — One person is in hospital, while another is in custody following an altercation leaving a woman with severe lacerations caused by a machete.

It happened Tuesday, May 10 around 8 p.m. at Beban Plaza near the Quality Foods on Bowen Rd.

Reserve Cst. Gary O’Brien said an altercation involving upwards of four people resulted in a woman being severely injured by machete strikes.

“Witnesses told us there was possibly a machete involved and bear spray. We found a young woman who had severe lacerations who was taken to hospital.”

He said they also located a man at the scene who was suffering from bear spray exposure.

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Following a short investigation, two other males were located nearby and identified as being involved in the incident.

One was arrested for aggravated assault and was in possession of a machete, and remains locked up as of Wednesday afternoon.

The woman who was taken to hospital was also later arrested for outstanding warrants, and providing a false name to investigators, O’Brien said.

Police are looking for any witnesses or those with security/dashcam footage to alert police.

O’Brien said at least three of the four individuals involved were well known to police, and their ages ranged from late teens to early 30’s.

He said he’s not sure if there are more people involved.

“Somebody may have disappeared before we got there. These people certainly aren’t pro-police, so there may be others involved we’re not sure at this point. And there may be other weapons out there that were stashed before the police arrived.”

On Wednesday morning, RCMP officers could be seen canvassing the area, but there were no signs of the incident which occurred the night before.

Police pieced together clues following a disturbing incident the evening before. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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