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A Winnipeg woman says standing up for someone who was being harassed on a bus has left her with shattered teeth and a black eye.

Aisha Walker said on Saturday night she was riding the number 11 bus when a man walked on and began to talk to a young woman.

“He was being really sexually aggressive to a person who was clearly a stranger to him,” Walker said. “[And then] the guy got into a verbal altercation with me because he didn’t like me blocking him from talking to the woman.”

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Walker said she put herself in between the man and the woman he was “grinding up against” and that an argument ensued. That’s when things escalated.

“A third person, totally unrelated to the incident until that point, said that both me and the man were being stupid and we needed to shut up and sit down,” Walker said. “I said, ‘I don’t know if you realize this, but I’m trying to defend a woman he was sexually harassing.’

“The guy stood up and said, ‘We can all step off the bus right now if that’s how you want to deal with this.'” Tweet This

Walker said she was shocked by the way the third person acted, but that she wasn’t about to back down from supporting her fellow passenger.

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“So I said, ‘I don’t understand what you’re trying to prove or what that would accomplish because I’m just trying to protect this woman,'” Walker said. “Apparently that was the wrong thing to say to him.

“He sucker-punched me in the face…full force,” Walker said. Tweet This

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Walker claims that after punching her, the man got off the bus at the University of Winnipeg and fled the scene.

She said the transit driver was notified of the incident and offered to call for medical assistance after seeing Walker’s state.

She declined the assistance, but filed a police report around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Walker sustained seven chipped teeth and a black eye in the incident. She says she feels her transgender identity could have played a role in the attack.

Const. Rob Carver of the Winnipeg Police Service said the incident is being investigated, but that police couldn’t piece together exactly what transpired until transit security footage is reviewed. For now, the police are treating the incident as a “serious assault.”

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Walker said she still can’t believe no one else got involved in the situation.

“It was a really crowded bus, so I kind of expected someone to say or do something,” she said. “There were so many people who could’ve had a better chance at helping.”

Walker said, however, the incident has not deterred her from standing up for what she thinks is right.

“If I see someone getting harassed again, I will step in again and do the exact same thing.” Tweet This