A Winnipeg area senior accused of initiating a violent brew-haha at a Tim Hortons drive-thru has stepped forward to say he was merely defending himself after another man stabbed him.

"I just want to set things straight," Lutz Joachim said Tuesday.

Joachim, 65, was charged with assault and an as-of-yet unidentified 21-year-old man was charged with assault with a weapon following a mid-morning skirmish March 30 at a Tim Hortons on Headmaster Row.

Police, in a news release Monday, did not identify either man but alleged it was the older accused who first assaulted the younger man as he sat in the passenger seat of his car, sparking a more aggressive exchange that ended with the older man being stabbed.

"If I hit him, I didn't hit him more than once, I was trying to grab the knife," Joachim said. "To people behind me it might have looked like I punched him."

Joachim said the younger accused and a female driver were sitting in their car about 10 feet short of the order window and had not moved for at least five minutes when Joachim honked his horn in an effort to move them along.

The car moved up to the order window and continued to sit there for another five minutes after the occupants placed their order, Joachim said.

More honking ensued, and the car moved up another five feet, Joachim said.

Another five minutes passed and the sequence repeated itself.

"I pulled up behind him and blew the horn again," Joachim said. "(The car) moved up a few feet and he got out and started walking toward me. I got out of my truck and ... he ran back to his car."

Joachim said he walked up to the passenger door and the man "started swearing at me, calling me all sorts of names."

Joachim said he opened the door and the man immediately stabbed him in the leg.

"Then I got mad," he said. "I went to grab for him and he pulled the knife out and stabbed me in the left bicep."

Joachim said he "might have got one shot in" as the man continued to stab at him, slicing him in the stomach and arm.

"I looked down and there was a huge puddle of blood," he said.

Joachim returned to his truck, picked up his order, then drove to an adjacent parking lot and called 911.

"I wasn't being impatient," Joachim said, referencing police comments about the incident. "I was being more than patient ... I don't want to be made out a villain."

dpritchard@postmedia.com

Twitter: @deanatwpgsun