Brothers charged in Sutherland assault turning themselves in Monday: lawyer

Two Alberta men facing charges in connection to a Nov. 28 assault in Saskatoon’s Sutherland area will turn themselves over to police on Monday, according to their lawyer. 

On Thursday Saskatoon police issued warrants for 28-year-old Darren Hinds and his 25-year-old brother Darcy, charging them with aggravated assault.

The brothers retained Saskatoon lawyer Brian Pfefferle, who said he phoned police shortly after the warrants were issued notifying police the two men lived in Alberta and they would return to Saskatoon on Monday to face charges.

“We indicated they would be turning themselves in on Monday and it would’ve been earlier if it wasn’t for the road conditions,” Pfefferle told CKOM News.

Police identified the brothers as the two men shown kicking and punching two men in the head in front of a bar on Central Avenue in a cellphone video that made the rounds on YouTube. Police released the ages of the victims, who were 43 and 32 years old. The extent of their injuries is unknown.

Information provided to police indicated that the incident happened outside Athena Family Restaurant, which recently changed over to a Tomas the Cook restaurant and is housed in the same building as Specklebelly’s Brewpub.

A spokesperson from nearby Dino’s Bar and Grill  said the brothers used to work at Specklebelly’s as bouncers. However, the current owner of Specklebelly’s said they haven’t been employed by him since he took over in September.

Pfefferle said while the video shows the Hinds brothers assaulting two other men, there’s still the question of what happened before the video started recording.

“It’s too early to tell but I would be very surprised if this fight happened without being provoked … unprovoked assaults are so rare,” Pfefferle said.

As for the charges of aggravated assault, Pfefferle said the standard sentence if found guilty could fall between two to four years in jail, however most of the cases he’s worked on involved a weapon. Pfefferle said because these two men come in with no criminal record and because he doesn’t know how badly injured the other two men are, the lesser charge of assault causing bodily harm could be laid.

Despite not knowing the circumstances that led to the incident, Pfefferle said  that if it was the result of a bar fight spilling out onto the sidewalk, the sad reality is these incidents happen all too often in Saskatoon.