Unprovoked stranger attack leaves two Nova Scotia artists with serious injuries

The moon over the Bay of Fundy along Nova Scotia’s coast on Sept. 6 was one night shy of full but showy enough to attract attention from Mark Grantham, a professional artist, and his partner David Parker, a musician who has played with symphonies around the world.

Outside their home on Highway 1 near Clementsport, about 200 kilometres west of Halifax, they were photographing the moon around 9 p.m., when a Mazda 3 smashed into a guardrail nearby.

The RCMP said Grantham and Parker offered to help the male driver inside, who had allegedly been drinking, but things went crazy.

The driver is accused of beating the two men severely, causing what police described as life-threatening injuries for both, one aged 61 and the other 58.

“Without warning or provocation, a stranger brutally attacked them and left them,” Grantham’s sisters said online.

That’s what the RCMP believe as well.

“I think they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Constable Mandy Edwards said. Police say the accused driver is known to police for past acts of violence.

What neither Grantham nor Parker knew at the time is that shortly before the Mazda crashed, the driver was allegedly involved in a different altercation, with someone he knew, and then left the scene in the car. A 46-year-old man, also from Clementsport, received non-life-threatening injuries in that prior incident, police said.

After the assault on Grantham and Parker, the driver allegedly abandoned the car and ran.

The two older men’s injuries were significant. They were taken to a local hospital and then transferred to Halifax for a major trauma centre because of the severity of their injuries.

Grantham is an architect whose paintings of urban and rural landscapes have been shown and celebrated throughout Atlantic Canada. Parker has worked with symphonies around the world, including the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta and the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, as well as principal horn with Symphony Nova Scotia.

Almost a month since, they remain unable to return to work, family said on a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to help the two men recover and support them as self-employed artists who currently cannot work.

“They both required surgeries to repair their severe facial injuries. Mark also sustained a fractured arm. David received serious head trauma and spent three days in the ICU. Mark was discharged to be cared for at home, but David remains in hospital,” the fundraiser said.

The afternoon after the attack, Sept. 7, police arrested 25-year-old William Cedric Douglas Windsor of Clementsport in Digby.

He has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm, assault, uttering threats, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, operation while impaired and two counts of failing to comply with a probation order.

Windsor is scheduled to appear in Annapolis Royal provincial court for a bail hearing on Oct. 8.

A family friend of Grantham and Parker said they are not speaking with media at this time.

“They have begun what doctors expect will be a long and challenging road to recovery. While the suspect has been arrested … it doesn’t undo the trauma and damage inflicted on these two innocent people,” reads a statement.

“Mark and David will both require ongoing medical care, physical therapy, and dietary support. David will also require cognitive rehabilitation. They will be unable to work for the foreseeable future…. The financial burden of this senseless attack is creating serious challenges during an already traumatic time.”

As of Friday, the fundraiser had raised $127,969 from 334 people.

“Mark and David have been touched by the support from friends, family, colleagues, and strangers alike. Your kindness has made a real difference during a difficult time,” Grantham’s sisters, Monica Grantham and Jenn Ferguson, wrote.

Chronicle-Herald and National Post 

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