NORTH BAY – Like a scene straight out of a horror movie, a North Bay mother awoke to a nightmare early Wednesday morning when she found a strange man in her child’s bedroom assaulting the child.

Fortunately city residents can be comforted by the fact police have the man in custody, though not before he caused enough physical harm to send a mother and child to hospital.

The incident, which began at 5 a.m. as the mother and her children were sleeping, is being described by North Bay police as being beyond logic and reason as the assailant was unknown the family he held at knifepoint before police arrived.

“It was completely random,” said North Bay Police Service spokesperson Marie Lugli.

The mother awoke to the noise of a break-in at her apartment. What she found would haunt any parents’ dreams. A man was in her child’s room, assaulting the child, according to police.

Before she even spotted exactly what was happening, she called 911 and then went to confront the assailant. At this point he turned his attention to her, putting a kitchen knife to her throat.

Despite the immediate danger, the mother had the wherewithal to call out to both her children to get out of the apartment and run to a neighbour’s for help, which they did.

Still holding the knife to her throat, the still-unknown assailant dragged her out of the apartment, where police were just arriving. Spotting the officers the assailant finally let go of the mother and made a run for it but was quickly caught, though not easily, police said. Both during and after his arrest he assaulted the officers, who caught up to him at the 600 block of Cassells Street in North Bay, between First and Second Avenue.

A North Bay blog reports the takedown was anything but routine, with the man being tasered multiple times and up to six officers required to restrain him.

Charged is Nathan Omer Carriere, age 22, of North Bay, with: