By Tom Gierasimczuk
As 40 to 50 youths kicked and punched him, Scott Carefoot’s biggest fear was getting stabbed.
“I could have died,” said the first-year journalism student, who was swarmed early last Sunday morning in front of a Yonge and Gerrard St. pizza restaurant.
The attack happened shortly after 3 a.m. when Carefoot, 19, walked into the Big Slice restaurant to look for some friends. “I went in to see if my buddies were inside. The next thing I know there’s this guy in my face asking me what my problem is,” Carefoot said. “Someone on my let screamed ‘Let’s swarm him’ and I was thrown to the ground.”
What ensued was a vicious beating that Carefoot says he was lucky to survive. “All I saw was boots and fists so I just covered my face.” Carefoot managed to push through the crowd and yelled to his friends for help. “My friend was in the taxi and he grabbed me and threw me in. He took some shots too,” Carefoot said. “Even after we were in the cab, the mob tried punching us. They were animals.”
The cab sped away from the mob and Carefoot’s friends made it back to the Pitman Hall residence. From what he remembers, Carefoot said the attackers were about 16 to 17 years old. He didn’t press any charges because when the police arrived they asked Carefoot to identify the attacker. “Like I could pick the one person who started it out of 50 people,” he said.
Surprisingly, Carefoot suffered only minor cuts and bruises. “I’m screwed up psychologically mostly,” he said. The Yonge St. strip is active late into the night on weekends but Carefoot said he thought nothing of the large crowd in front of the restaurant. “I just wanted to check something out. It’s not like I looked at anybody,” he said.
Assaults on Ryerson students in the downtown core are not common, but they do occur. The 1991 murder of Paul Semple and last year’s assault on former RSU president, Danielle Holmes, by angry hookers prove Ryerson students are not immune to street violence.
Staff at the Big Slice restaurant said they knew nothing of the attack. “It’s so busy here (on weekend nights), we rarely notice anything going on in the street,” an employee said.
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