A bizarre incident in downtown Humboldt last week has led to serious charges of kidnapping and sexual assault against a man from Naicam.
At 5:10 p.m. on July 21, members of the Humboldt RCMP received a call from the employee of a retail store on Main St. in Humboldt. The employee reported that a man was trying to forcibly remove a female patron from the store, stating that the man was grabbing her around the waist, trying to pull her out the door. The woman was allegedly fighting and trying to break away from the man's grasp.
RCMP members could hear a woman yelling and screaming in the background when they got the call.
Just two to three minutes later, motor-ists on Main St. in Humboldt witnessed a southbound RCMP vehicle swing a wide U-turn and angle park in front of Universal Sports on the east side of 600 block of Main St. Officers rushed out of the vehicle and ran into the store, where a woman could be seen, waving her arms, screaming and holding onto the door of the store. RCMP reports indicate that the man had the woman around the waist and was yanking and heaving, trying to get her out of the store.
The two constables reported that they approached the man, told him he was under arrest, and ordered him to release the woman.
The man failed to comply with orders, they claim, so the members physically intervened. The man was sprayed with OC spray - commonly known as pepper spray - and after a physical struggle with the two members, he was taken into custody.
Lars Allen Olson, 27, of Naicam, has been charged with kidnapping, sexual assault and assault in connection with this incident. He appeared in Saskatoon Provincial Court on July 22, and was remanded into police custody, awaiting a second appearance on July 25. After that appearance, he was remanded into custody a third time, and ordered to appear again on July 28.
What makes the incident so bizarre is that it occurred in broad daylight, in the middle of the business day, and that the man was completely unknown to the 36-year-old female victim. She had never met or seen Olson before this incident, an RCMP news release notes.
"Physical altercations between people that know each other are not uncommon,"Cpl. Rob King, a spokesman for the RCMP, has been quoted as saying. "But physical altercations such as this [one], in broad daylight, going into a crowded store, trying to drag someone out while they are kicking and screaming at the top of their lungs and struggling, is highly unusual.
"Both the female patron, who suffered minor injuries during the incident, and the female clerk of the store who called the police, were quite shaken by the events of the afternoon, RCMP reported.
The investigation into this incident is ongoing.
