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Haley Sylvester is trying to make sense out of what happened Sunday night, when her husband was stabbed while trying to stop a stranger from attacking his neighbour in the Burnside Gorge area.

While Ashley Quewezance’s injuries were described as potentially life-threatening by Victoria police, Sylvester said he was sitting up in a wheelchair Tuesday.

“He’s still on a breathing machine,” she said. “The damage was pretty serious.”

The injuries included stab wounds to his chest, Sylvester said, and his thyroid was lacerated.

She said her husband and son, Richard Daniels, had just popped outside onto Albany Street to have a cigarette in their truck Sunday night when an unknown vehicle turned onto the roadway and stopped after he lost some lumber. When a neighbour drove by him, the man seemed to take offence.

As the neighbour was standing at his residence, the man from the unknown vehicle began walking toward him and swearing, she said.

“He was a stranger.”

The man pulled out a can of bear spray and began releasing it at the neighbour.

“That’s when my husband and my son jumped out of the truck,” said Sylvester, adding the two wanted to get the bear spray away from the man.

In the process “they both got sprayed pretty good,” Sylvester said.

Her son couldn’t see anything due to the spray, she said, and the next thing he knew, Quewezance had been stabbed.

“Richie just opened his eyes to look at Ash and he pulled the knife out of his chest and threw it on the ground.”

The neighbour ripped off his shirt and gave it to Daniels to put on the wound, Sylvester said.

The alleged attacker disappeared, she said.

Paramedics arrived to take Quewezance to hospital.

Police said the suspect was found in a nearby temporary-housing facility and was arrested without incident. Recommended charges include three counts of assault and one of aggravated assault.

Victoria police Const. Cam McIntyre said the Burnside Gorge area has been a recent focal point for violent crime.

“We’ve seen a number of violent incidents in Burnside Gorge the past few months.”

jwbell@timescolonist.com