A Canadian man is in the hospital today, and he may never walk again. At 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, Scott Jones, 27, and a group of friends were walking down the street in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, when 19 year-old Shane Edward Matheson and an unidentified accomplice approached them. Matheson proceeded to stab Jones in the back twice and attempted to slit his throat.

Jones’s roommate, Amy Punke, was present at the time of the attack. She believes Jones was targeted because he is gay, and she — like the rest of us — is trying to make sense of what happened. “I’m not angry at all,” Punke told CTV News. “Just disbelief. And sad that things like this still happen.”

Jones is the organist and choir director at First Presbyterian Church in New Glasgow, where one fellow congregant described the “numbness” and “frustration” among community members at the moment.

Jones, on the other hand, is reportedly in good spirits. He has been moved from Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow to the larger Queen Elizabeth Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. According to CTV News, early indications suggest that Jones will remain paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life.

Although police cannot confirm whether or not this attack was a hate crime, Matheson has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon dangerous to public peace. In addition, Matheson also faces weapons charges from another incident on Friday evening, in which he assaulted an 18 year-old woman. The two attacks do not appear to be related, according to police.

While there is no word on the other man involved in Jones’s attack, Matheson is expected in court on Tuesday, October 14. Courts are closed today in observance of Canada’s Thanksgiving. We will continue to follow this case as details unfold.