Robbery
A 19-year-old man is facing two robbery charges after two separate attacks last week.
Police were called to a home in the Akinsdale Gardens townhouse complex on June 28 around 11 p.m. because a 23-year-old man had been robbed of his backpack and assaulted.
While they were investigating that incident, they got a report of a similar incident near the Sturgeon River footbridge behind St. Albert Centre.
In that case, a 20-year old man was assaulted and robbed of his cellphone.
In both robberies, the descriptions of the suspect were very similar, and police found someone matching those descriptions near St. Albert Centre. At the time of the arrest the man was found with a knife and the property from both robberies.
Mitchell Allan Kusmaniuk, 19, faces two counts of robbery, one charge of assault with a weapon and one of common assault, as well as one count of mischief. He is being held without bail.
He made a brief court appearance on Monday and his case was put over for two weeks.
Child abandoned
A St. Albert woman is facing possible child abandonment charges in Kelowna, B.C., for leaving a four-month old girl in a sweltering car.
Kelowna RCMP received a call on Monday afternoon from a department store parking lot, when a passerby noticed the infant in the back seat of a Toyota sedan.
Kelowna RCMP Const. Steve Holmes said the witness was concerned because the temperature was over 30 C outside the car and there was no one in sight.
The officers who arrived at the scene quickly decided to get the child out of the vehicle by breaking the car's window and getting the girl out.
They also called an ambulance to the scene. Holmes said the baby's core temperature was elevated and police were very concerned.
"She was perspiring and would certainly have been in some distress especially because the interior car temperature was much hotter," he said.
Holmes said the young girl's mother appeared shortly thereafter and told police she had only meant to jump into the store for a second.
Holmes said, when children are that young, they simply can't be left in the car, even if parents think it will only be a few minutes.
"That's the problem — you can't justify leaving a baby or a toddler inside a hot car. There is no such thing as just a couple of minutes."
The British Columbia Ministry of Children and Family Development was called in on the case and has returned the infant to her mother, but also into the care of the baby's grandparents who live in Kelowna, Holmes said.
He said the RCMP is recommending the Crown consider child abandonment charges against the mother.
Clubhouse fire
The St. Albert RCMP is looking for help on what they believe was an attempted arson at the Willoughby Clubhouse.
Officers and St. Albert Fire Services were called to the clubhouse on Monday, June 20, at around 9 a.m. A public works employee had come to the clubhouse for regular maintenance when they noticed smoke coming from a wooden walkway at the rear of the building.
There was a strong smell of gas at the clubhouse and three empty gas cans were found right beside the walkway. The police are concerned that, even though the building was not damaged, it easily could have been destroyed.
Anyone with any information on this incident is being asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or the St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700.
