Coming to work nearly killed a man behind his store on Thursday.
Michael Meads, 40, was stabbed in the neck at 3:30 p.m. as he confronted a transient in the parking lot behind Pandosy Food Basket, a grocer on Sutherland Avenue. The victim's father said he expects him to survive.
"I don't think it's too serious. He's still conscious," store owner Bill Meads said as paramedics treated his son nearby. "He just came in to work. I was about to give him (hell) for being late."
Meads had apparently told the scruffy-looking man to leave the property and the man pulled out a kitchen knife. He slashed him on the lower right side of Meads' neck and took off on foot toward Richter Street, leaving the knife behind.
"He's just a crackhead in the parking lot," said Bill Meads. "There's lots of crackheads in the area. They don't usually do this."
An ambulance took Meads to hospital for emergency treatment. RCMP brought in a sniffer dog and 10 officers searched the neighbourhood for the suspect. He was still at large two hours later.
More transients and street people are hanging out in the area, say police.
"There's a bit of a push from the downtown core to the Sutherland area," said spokesman Const. Kris Clark. "As we become more strict in our control of the (downtown) red zone, it appears to be pushing more people out into the Sutherland area."