A Kamloops woman is shaken up after a bloodied man let himself into her downtown house last week and told her she might be killed — and she's concerned police aren't going to do anything about it.
Janice Pilkington said she was home alone on Saturday — with her kids due to return home at any minute — when a man came down her street, knocking on doors and asking for help while saying someone was coming to kill him.
“He got to the neighbour before me and while she was calling the police and telling him to stay put, he'd gotten on to her roof top," she told Castanet Kamloops.
"[He] left his backpack and then slipped down and into my yard and then came through my side door."
Pilkington said it seemed like the man was either in a drug-induced psychosis or suffering a mental-health crisis. He was wearing a hospital bracelet with blood on his hands.
She said he left bloody fingerprints inside her house.
“I was just absolutely petrified because he said, 'The Hells Angels are coming, they’re going to kill me — and they're going to kill you, too,'” Pilkington said.
“I told him to leave over and over again. I told him, ‘You're scaring me, you need to leave’ — and he wouldn't. He refused. He retreated further into the house and I was able to grab my phone and then get outside.”
Pilkington said she stood outside with her neighbour and waited. The man came out of her house a few minutes before police arrived.
Kamloops Mounties confirmed they responded to a report involving a man who appeared to be having a medical incident just before 3 p.m. on Saturday.
“They located a man outside a residence who was emotionally and physically distressed, and who was requesting assistance. In this case, it appears the man was in the midst of a medical emergency,” Const. Crystal Evelyn said in a statement to Castanet.
“Ambulance was contacted and transported the man to the hospital.”
Pilkington said she asked police twice if she could pursue charges against the man and was told not to bother — because she could not prove intent on harm.
“I understand that the RCMP, they're just super busy with all this stuff, but all [the officer] said was, 'I hope you can move past this,'” she said.
Pilkington said it’s frustrating that it seems the man won’t face any consequences for his actions, especially as it appears he has a criminal record and is facing outstanding trespassing charges.
She said the man gave her his name during the incident. Searches of online court records show he has convictions for drug- and property-related offences and is slated to appear in Salmon Arm provincial court later this month on charges of trespassing at night, mischief and breaching probation.
In regards to Pilkington's desire to see the man charged, Evelyn told Castanet the file is in the process of being reviewed. She said investigators will likely be contacting Pilkington for further discussion on the matter.
In the meantime, Pilkington said she has been shaken up by the incident. She said she wanted to give other residents a heads up to be vigilant — and to keep their doors locked.
“It just makes me feel like, even when I take the garbage outside, I'm so on edge,” she said.
“I live downtown and I feel like I just can't walk alone anymore. I just feel like there’s this extra feeling of just always watching over your back.”