Colin
While the crook has been sentenced to 18 months in jail, the victim of the violent crime faces up to 14 years behind bars
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When Tejeshwar Kalia struck a robber with the same baseball bat he was hit with, the 22-year-old international student from India did what anybody in a life and death situation would do.
“I saw it as me defending myself,” Kalia told the Toronto Sun on Thursday. “I was afraid for my life.”
He didn’t think he would end up charged along with the original attacker who had hit him with a baseball bat in a robbery attempt.
Now the video is out and it offers context. In just under one minute, it shows an interaction between a homeless man with severe drug issues and a young man who is in Canada attending Sir Sanford Fleming College.
The video shows the 2:30 a.m. incident began with the bandit – wearing a black balaclava, sunglasses and gloves – entering the store with a baseball bat concealed in a blue bag. Once at the counter, video shows him taking the bat out of the bag and using it to repeatedly strike Kalia in the back of his head.
From there a struggle over control of this bat ensues. Kalia, another unknown customer in the store and Handel appear all tangled up in a physical scrum before ending up outside.
At one point Kalia is seen gaining control of the bat and as Handel starts to run, the clerk takes five fast steps toward the robber and strikes him in the back of the head. Kalia then takes a second swing after Handel hit the ground.
Kalia’s first move after that is to take out his phone to call 911 as he knelt down and held Handel’s head nursing his wounds.
The video version differs slightly from how it was described in a Jan. 9 press release from Peterborough Police who wrote a “man came into the store demanding money and brandishing a baseball bat. A struggle ensued and the clerk was struck with the bat before grabbing the bat away from from the suspect. The suspect then fled the store. The clerk followed the suspect out of the store and struck him several times with the baseball bat on the sidewalk.”
