EXCLUSIVE: Black woman beat up by white male neighbour after her dog runs into his backyard

TORONTO — Vanessa Alexander was violently physically assaulted by her neighbour, after her dog ran into the man’s backyard.

On Father’s Day Alexander says that she was cleaning her car out front of her house, when her next door neighbour Tony’s daughter invited her over for cake. While enjoying the food with her neighbours in the yard, her dog , Gigi, took off running after a cat into the yard of a man named Shelley, who lives next door to Tony.

Alexander says that she never entered Shelley’s property, and called for her dog from Tony’s house, and the dog came running back quickly. She then took her dog back to her backyard, and returned to Tony’s to finish her cake.

“That’s when from the side I could hear someone yelling ‘Hey buddy, pal, I’m talking to you,’” Alexander said.

He then came over and began to accuse Alexander and Gigi of hanging out in his backyard.

“I’d never been in his backyard before, I told him ‘You don’t approach me like that,’” she said.

But before she could explain herself, things took a dark turn.

“As soon as I said that I remember getting punched in the face and the eyes, he smashed my head on the concrete and kept going down on my head,” Alexander told Brandon.

“He’s massive, he looks like he’s in his 50’s or 60’s, he looks like he’s about 300 lbs, three times my weight. He’s a big guy, I’m 100 lbs. I never expected him to fight,” she said.

“I hit the ground pretty fast and I remember my head going back and forth, him scraping me on the concrete,” she told Brandon.

“I would say it was 30+ punches and he just kept going. I was screaming stop, but it got to a point where I couldn’t say anything anymore and he kept going,” Alexander explained.

She says that Tony’s daughter Maria was also screaming for Shelley to stop, to no avail.

“He didn’t hit me in the body, he punched me in the head and the face,” Alexander told Brandon.

Alexander dragged herself back to her house after the assault, and called her friend who then called 9-1-1.

“My friend came and she told me that I was unresponsive when she arrived before EMS. But EMS arrived pretty quickly,” Alexander said. However, the police were another story.

“When she called the police they had said they had other calls,” Alexander told Brandon.

The Brandon Gonez Show reached out to police for their side of the story.

“At 9:18 on June 20, 2021 Police were called to an assault that had occurred at approximately 9 P.M. Paramedics attended to ensure the victim received immediate medical attention,” said Connie Osborne of Toronto Police Media Relations.

“Every incident has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into account threat, risk, and harm posed. At that time, information from callers suggested the suspect had left the area and the victim was in hospital, limiting any further threat to her,” Osborne told the Brandon Gonez Show.

Alexander said that police did not arrive until the early hours of the following morning, and when they did arrive, a nurse told her that police would not be speaking to her because they were from the wrong division.

“Unfortunately, our resources were responding to other incidents at the time and were unable to attend. We were continually updated by the victims family and friends, as well as medical staff,” Toronto Police said.

Police did eventually take pictures of her injuries and took a statement from Alexander about what had happened.

“He was arrested and the charge was bodily harm,” she said.

Alexander said the incident has left her feeling unsafe in her own neighbourhood.

“I’ve been in contact with victim services and even that process is taking a long time. Even now I haven’t had a councillor that I can talk to,” she said.

She says that she is constantly repeating the attack in her head and struggling with the aftermath of her assault.

“It’s not only physical, a lot of it is mental,” Alexander explained.

“It’s a very privileged system that we live in for some. That’s not okay because I may be his first victim on paper, but who knows if he’s actually committed this before and no one knows,” Alexander said.

Vanessa told Brandon that she will have to undergo surgery because of injuries she sustained from the attack. She said that she is grateful to be alive after the attack. But Alexander said that every day she looks in the mirror and is reminded of what was done to her, and hopes that it never happens to someone else.

“It’s something I have to wake up and see on my face. I don’t want him on the streets and 200 metres away from me is all that they’re putting in place right now,” Alexander said, explaining that she hopes the neighbour is sentenced to jail time.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Vanessa recover from her attack.