Man says people laughed and hurled insults as he lay injured in an Oakville parking lot

A Mississauga man says people laughed at him and hurled insults as he lay injured in an Oakville plaza parking lot on the night of Saturday, Aug. 15.

Felipe Belalcazar, 33, who lives just across the Oakville border, is home with a fractured shin and unable to work, following an accident in the Sheridan Garden Drive and Winston Churchill Boulevard area.

He says the incident began at around 9:30 p.m., when he was out for a walk.

Belalcazar says he was on the sidewalk, crossing the driveway to a plaza when a vehicle turned into the plaza and nearly struck him.

The front of their car was at my knees and I had to jump out of the way," said Belalcazar.

So, I hit the hood of their car and yelled at them."

At this point Belalcazar says the situation escalated with three men getting out of the car and surrounding him.

He says he was shoved and punched, resulting in cuts to his face.

The documentary filmmaker says he defended himself as best he could, but the confrontation only ended when the driver of the vehicle called on the others to get back in the car.

The suspect vehicle then left the area.

Fearing these men would return with more help Belalcazar made a run for a nearby business, but in his haste to get there he fell and fractured his left shin.

Belalcazar, who had left his cellphone at home, could not get up and spent the next 15 minutes lying in the plaza parking lot.

He says what upsets him most about this incident is there were plenty of people in the area, but none would help him.

There are businesses in this plaza that are open late ... I'm lying there, covered in blood. There were cars driving by and I was waving and hollering and saying, I'm hurt. Can you help me' and people laughed," said Belalcazar.

People laughed. A car stopped and they were hurling insults and saying this was my own fault. Telling me not to do stupid sh#% next time."

Belalcazar says other people in cars saw him, looked at him with what he perceived to be confusion and then just drove away.

He says none of these people even called police or an ambulance, but simply left him there.

The Mississauga man says those were probably the longest 15 minutes of his life, noting he didn't know what would happen or if the men from earlier would come back and attack him.

He said eventually an Uber Eats driver, who was attending the nearby Pizza Pizza noticed him, approached and asked if he was OK.

At first I couldn't tell if he was drunk or high or something like that, but as I got closer I could see that he had injuries, especially to his knees," said the driver who asked not to be identified.

I tried to help him to get up, but it was obvious he couldn't stand."

Not long after Belalcazar was on his way to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital for treatment.

Halton police are investigating this incident and are searching the area for any surveillance cameras that may have recorded Belalcazar's assault.

While Belalcazar is upset with the men whose actions, he feels, led to his injury and lost work he remains haunted by the people who saw him in agony and ignored his calls for help.

We're here to help each other," said Belalcazar.

My wife is really upset by this because she grew up in Oakville with a mentality that we're all friends here and everybody helps everybody else ... To not just laugh, but to somehow get off on someone else's suffering ... I don't understand."

The Uber Eats driver said it never occurred to him not to help.

If you see someone on the ground and obviously in distress you ask if everything is all right," he said.

For me, there wasn't even really a second thought."

The three suspects involved in Belalcazar's assault are described as black, 20-25 years old.

The first suspect was five-foot-eight, had medium length hair, an unkept long beard and wore a dark zip-up sweater with a red shirt underneath.

The other two individuals wore dark sweaters.

The suspect vehicle is described as an older model dark coloured four-door Acura, possibly an Acura TL.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Halton police at 905-825-4747 ext. 2216 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).