Darryl Brown says his life has never been the same since he was attacked with a machete in an unprovoked midday assault in Surrey two years ago.
His assailants — who police say might have been enacting a gang initiation — were never caught, and with a sudden spike in gang violence, Brown wants his family out of Metro Vancouver.
“The fear is back, living in the Lower Mainland where all this (violence) is happening,” Brown told Metro News Thursday in his first interview since the attack.
“Being out in public with my (family) is scary, and it wasn’t like that before.”
On Monday, Brown went to Victoria to propose new True Cost of Crime legislation that would provide better financial assistance to victims of crime.
Brown was critically injured in November 2006, after pulling into the driveway of a Surrey home because of car problems.
Out of nowhere, he was attacked.
“I was hit in the back of the head and thought the hood had fallen down on my head, and I ducked and turned around and got hit in the front of the head. I don’t remember a lot after that.”
Vancouver police Det. Doug Spencer said the attack has all the signs of a gang initiation.
“They’ll do it to prove themselves. It’s real street-level stuff,” Spencer said.
Brown took three machete blows to the head and his left arm was “hacked up and smashed into pieces.”
He lost a finger and his left arm is held together with plates and screws.
He can no longer work as a welder and now gets $8 an hour in disability.
“I still see a psychiatrist (and) it’s been a major toll on my marriage,” Brown said. “Something has to change.”
