Guelph townhomes damaged by woman wielding metal baseball bat

CTV’s Alexandra Holyk has reaction to a scary incident at a townhouse complex in Guelph.

Guelph Police are trying to identify the person who damaged two east-end townhomes with a baseball bat on Wednesday.

The vandalism happened just before 9 p.m. at a townhouse complex near Auden and Eastview roads.

Shanice Rouse was getting her six-year-old son ready for bed when she said she heard yelling outside her home.

“I looked out and I saw a woman walking with a baseball bat and she, I guess, saw me or heard me,” Rouse told CTV News. “She looked up and stated yelling, ‘Now I know where you live, I’m coming to get you.’”

Rouse said the woman lunged for her front door, which was unlocked.

“All I saw was you running down the stairs at full speed,” Rouse’s other son, Brody, said to his mom. “And I just heard banging on the door, and you told me to go upstairs.”

Rouse said she made it just in time.

“I locked it just as she was trying to open the front door, screaming and yelling all kinds of profanities,” said Rouse.

Rouse added that she didn’t know the woman or what she wanted. Shortly after she locked up, she heard the metal bat smash her metal door.

“It was terrifying,” Rouse said. “I didn’t know what she was going to do.”

The damage was minimal, leaving only a couple of dents. But Rouse said her sense of security was left shaken.

“We had chairs against the door last night and I slept on the couch with a bat,” she said.

Rouse’s door wasn’t the only one the suspect hit.

Shortly after, a resident at another townhouse complex contacted Guelph Police. He said someone had buzzed the intercom and yelled to be let inside.

“Of course, he didn’t open the door,” said Guelph Police Service spokesperson Scott Tracey. “And the person again, through unknown means, presumably with the bat, banged on the door a few times and then left the area.”

The victims described the woman as possibly Indigenous, with a black ponytail and wearing a beige cardigan.

As police search for a suspect, they recommend residents lock their doors and look out for suspicious activity.

“Keep the door closed,” said Tracey. “If it’s possible to look out through a door or through a window and get a description of that person, then certainly do that.”

Anyone with information related to Wednesday’s incident is asked to contact the Guelph Police Service or Crime Stoppers.