LIVE MUSICSILENT AUCTIONBY DONATION @ Door.We were approached at the Ok Corral Cabaret by a community member looking to help when he read this story and are happy to provide the venue and support this fundraiser:Castanet News – March 12, 2017:A man suffering from a brain injury after he was sucker punched and beaten for almost 10 minutes in front of his eight-year-old daughter wishes he could trade places with his attacker, who’s receiving treatment at a psychiatric hospital after being found not criminally responsible for the attack.Jack, who’s asked that his real name not be used, was walking with his daughter to school near Bliss Bakery on Ellis Street on the morning of April 1, 2016.“Beautiful little street,” he said. “I’ll never go on it again probably.”Jack has no memory of the morning of April 1. He now has very little memory of his 46 years prior to that morning either.“He attacked me just as I let go of my daughter’s hand,” Jack said, citing surveillance footage of the incident. “He delivered 14 or more blows to the back of my neck, and then turned me around and continued to beat me to the point of over 150-some-odd blows that they can count.”The attacker, Mark Fines, went on to steal a car, drive down Ellis Street along the sidewalk, narrowly missing Jack and his daughter, and smashing into a police SUV. Fines then got out of the car and attempted to pull the officer out of the SUV while he assaulted him.Fines was finally subdued by a group of nearby construction workers.Following the attack, Jack has had to relearn many things that most people take for granted.“Just imagine being a baby and what you have to learn,” he said. “I used to be a contributing member of the world and a good father and now I struggle to do both.“They’re trying to figure out if I’ll ever be able to work again.”On Tuesday, the BC Review Board ruled Fines will be held in custody at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam for at least the next 12 months, as he is still considered a threat to the public.Jack said he wishes he had such a luxury.“I wrote a letter to the Crown asking for his immediate release, and that I would take his spot instead,” Jack said. “I don’t understand how a man can hurt somebody and destroy a family, and a get away with it and now he gets to stay in a hospital with a roof over his head, and meals prepared for him for free and all those benefits that go along with it … and me, I live with this all day long and I’ve already filled out, we’ve counted 1,149 forms so far, and to this date, other than WorkBC’s kindness and strangers that I have no idea where they come from, I have received just under $400.”Jack says his sister has helped him slog through the seemingly endless paperwork to get help for his injury. She’s even set up a GoFundMe account that has raised just over $1,500 over the last three months.In addition to the financial struggles and mental issues the attack has left him with, Jack says he now lives in fear.“I’m nervous about everybody nowadays,” he said. “Not knowing what this guy looks like is also very scary, because he could do it again and I wouldn’t even know it’s coming.“All I want to do is get my life back.”Go-Fund-Me link if you want to make a cash donation –https://www.gofundme.com/
