As a teenager lay in critical condition in Prince George hospital, his community rallied back home in Vanderhoof to end the violence that put him there.
The family of the perpetrators and the family of the victim stood side by side offering each other support.
Brandon Lee Thomas-Flurer, 17, was described to The Citizen as a friendly, athletic, positive youth influence for the Saik'uz First Nation based on the Stoney Creek Reserve. That was where Thomas-Flurer was on Friday night as he walked home, excited about the new job at Extra Foods he was starting the next morning. He was only a couple of months away from graduation at Nechako Valley secondary school, and he was impatient for the spring thaw to open up the pitches for the games of rugby and soccer he loves so much.
His mother said all of that will have to be strictly curtailed due to the effects of head trauma. The beating was so savage - the suspects' identities are known and police are seeking them - the tread of the attackers' shoes could be read on his facial skin. His brain was bleeding.
She credited native remedies for part of his encouraging recovery, but she trusts the analysis of his conventional doctors about the dire consequences of his head injuries.
"The drugs and alcohol has taken over the young people in the communities, and they targeted my son," said Thomas-Flurer. "They were passing in a truck and jumped out and pounded him, just random. He was three blocks from home and they just left him there. It could have been anyone - anyone's child."
Others saw their own family members embodied in the nearly fatal attack, and since it was not the first - just the worst - violence in the Saik'uz-Vanderhoof area in recent times, it sparked a burst of action.
By Sunday at 11 a.m. scores of people were motivated to attend a talking circle at the Saik'uz community centre. Among the attendees were Carrier Sekani Tribal Council Chief David Luggi, Saik'uz First Nations Chief Jackie Thomas, most or all of the Saik'uz elected council, and representatives of the RCMP.
Thomas-Flurer said she and the community all knew that drugs and alcohol have been a bane of Northern B.C. communities for decades, and it was the main fuel in this violence now.
"There are so many things needed to make a community, and there is no money for that," she said. "We have to start talking about solutions and talking about traditional ways. What I want is for the people who did this to face an elders' circle and let them decide what retribution and payment has to come of it."
She cautioned that the word retribution was meant in its most literal sense.
"Forgiveness is what it is all about," she said. "I got word right away that the mother of one of the boys who attacked my son was crying at the gathering. I want her to know that I forgive those who did this. I want them to face their community, but the last thing our family wants is for any feelings of revenge or feelings of hate to be in our hearts. We have love in our hearts. My son is in the hospital and other people's children have been in the hospital from violence and what are you going to do to stop that from happening anymore? What am I going to do alongside you? This is a really good example of how communities have to come together."
Brandon Lee Thomas-Flurer was transferred to hospital in Vanderhoof on Sunday night. Earlier in the day, before the results of tests and scans came back, preparations were being made for his transfer to Vancouver instead. His improvement was good enough to warrant care closer to his loved ones.
Stay with The Citizen for more in the days ahead on this incident and the community outpouring that has come from it.
