Police have arrested three suspects in connection with the supper hour robbery of a woman who was pepper-sprayed and hit with a steel bar on a River Heights street.

The violent purse-snatching on Saturday injured Jason Findlay's 66-year-old mother, who plans to go for X-rays Monday because the family thinks she may have a broken rib.

"It wasn't even dark," Findlay said. "This is in the middle of the daytime — daylight, people around — and something like this happened. It's pretty crazy."

Gordon Lucas, 18, is charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts each of carrying and possessing a concealed weapon, unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon, assault with a weapon and illegal use of a credit card, police said. Two youths, 17 and 16, face similar charges. All are being held in custody.

Findlay's mother was walking down Grosvenor Avenue toward Brock Street around 6 p.m. Saturday to meet a friend so they could walk over to the Grove Pub & Restaurant on Stafford Street for supper, said Findlay, who didn't give her name.

"Three youths were coming towards her on the sidewalk but didn't move over, so she stepped off to the side, and that's when one grabbed her purse," he said.

"They started tussling and she screamed, and then she got pepper-sprayed, hit, and then pepper-sprayed again."

Hit across back

Neighbours came to her aid and she got someone to telephone her son immediately, so he was quickly at her side, he said.

"I drove over and found her on the ground with the people around her helping her, because she'd been sprayed with pepper spray and hit with some kind of pipe batons … across her back," Findlay said

A man chased the young men who took her purse, and a woman recorded them running away, while other neighbours came with water to help wash out his mom's eyes, Findlay said.

His mom was treated by paramedics but didn't go to the hospital, he said; she's going for X-rays Monday to check the injuries she received from being hit in the back by the metal bar.

It's good police quickly made arrests, Findlay said.

"Everyone's going to be thinking about what they're doing when they're walking around, maybe eyeballing everyone now."

'Strikes people a little different'

Winnipeg police Const. Rob Carver said at a news conference that investigators worked "pretty well around the clock" until they arrested the three suspects Sunday.

"It was fairly brazen and it kind of shocked most people. It shocked me," he said.

Surveillance video and the use of a stolen credit card helped police track down the suspects, Carver said.

Police believe the culprits planned to attack and rob someone, and that unlike some recent violent crimes in the city, drug use didn't fuel the crime.

"Crime doesn't stay in a particular neighbourhood," he said. "It can happen anywhere, anytime."

Police devote the same resources to other similar crimes, but in this case, they got a lot of help from the neighbourhood, Carver said.

"I think this one strikes people a little different," he said.

"I think investigators know in their hearts that this could have been someone's mother, you know, aunt. … I think anyone who's targeted, where they're not doing anything at all, they're just on their way on a Saturday afternoon — it leaves us feeling a little different."

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