Calgarian allegedly attacked with hammer in Tsuut’ina Nation

A Calgarian shopping on the Tsuut’ina First Nation just west of Calgary was allegedly attacked by a man he’d never seen before; the man apparently coming at him with a gun and a hammer — hitting him with the hammer six times and causing potentially life-altering injuries.

“He had a gun in his one hand on the right side on his right hand and he had a hammer in his left hand, and he said to me get inside, ‘Don’t move, or I’ll shoot you,'” the man, named Rifat, told CityNews. “I started stepping back and I said, ‘What is it you want man?’

“From the moment I said that, he took the hammer and he went like this,” he demonstrated. “So right on top of my head, two clean shots above my head. I wasn’t even prepared. I was like – ‘What happened?'”

A project coordinator by profession, 35-year-old Rifat recently moved to Calgary from Toronto and was just settling into his new life, when this unfortunate incident happened on Jan. 14.

“We can confirm that we have an active assault investigation that occurred at the Dollarama on Buffalo Run Boulevard,” the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service told CityNews. “As this is an active and complex investigation, no details will be released until the investigative team is ready to publicly provide them.”

The alleged assault has left Rifat with over 60 stitches, multiple fractures to the skull, temporal bone, and arm, facial paralysis, and trauma for life.

“I could feel the blood coming out,” he recalled. “That’s when I started — my goal was to get away from the car and get closer towards people. He kept coming at me with more of the hammer attack.

“That’s when I raised my left arm to protect my head, and in that incident, he hit my forehead,” Rifat said, pointing out his stitches.

Rifat says some people in the shopping plaza came to his rescue, and that’s when the assailant ran away.

It has been two weeks since the incident happened, and due to the extent of his injuries, Rifat is unable to work, walk, or even leave the house.

“Of course the physical pain is there. I’m still dealing with like the head trauma, it’s still there,” he said. “But the most hurtful thing for me [is] seeing my mom, having to see my mom see me like this, you know, no mother should see their child like that.

“”I think what I went through — for me to be alive — I count it as a miracle,” he said.