News: ‘It’s been a long struggle’

Published in the August 20 2010 issue of The Edmonton Sun. News

‘It’s been a long struggle’

The family of a man left paralyzed and brain-damaged after a brutal swarming one year ago is pleading to the public for tips to find the group responsible.

Shane Tebby was walking home after visiting friends late on Aug. 19, 2009, when a group approached him near a 7-Eleven store on the east side of 97 Street and 122 Avenue.

The group followed him to the corner of 97 Street and 120 Avenue, where he was attacked and beaten with brute force and weapons. It’s not clear why Tebby was attacked.

Police say Tebby was found in a pool of blood by a couple walking by just after 2 a.m.

“Today is the day (one year ago) that I got the news,” Valerie Teahan-Tebby, Shane’s mother, tearfully said on Thursday.

“It’s been a long struggle… he’s lost everything through this. It’s been heartbreaking.”

Police are looking for up to nine suspects responsible for the beating.

“It’s a plea to the public to generate information,” said Det. Mike Zacharuk.

“People driving by may have seen something. Anyone who lives in the community may have heard something, may have seen a group of people, may have seen Shane earlier in the night and we’re looking for that information.”

Zacharuk says the attackers were a group of men, possibly aboriginal, and two men were believed to have been carrying knives while another had an improvised club.

Shane remains at the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury in Ponoka, where he’s been for a year, unable to speak or walk.

He also has trouble moving the right side of his body.

“It’s unbelievable that somebody or some people could do something like that,” said Shane’s sister Jessica Tebby.

“The pain that a mother goes through … the helplessness that I feel, that’s a pain that I carry with me every day,” Valerie said.

Valerie hopes anyone with information will come forward to bring peace to her son’s case, and to help prevent similar violent incidents from happening again.

“One of my fears is that because they have done this and all this time has passed, I’m concerned that they could do this again because they haven’t faced any consequences,” she said.

Valerie says her son, who is now 27, will likely need 24-hour care for the rest of his life.