Support pours in for family of bowling alley attack victim

Zackary Straughan is being remembered as loving father and a dear friend.

The 25-year-old Saskatoon man died after a fight broke out at a Manitoba Bowling alley Saturday night.

Family said the fight was over an unpaid debt worth $16.

Straughan was hit multiple times in the head with a pool cue and suffered severe head and brain trauma.

He died in hospital on Monday.  

His pregnant girlfriend Ashley Hague said she was speaking with him the night of the attack and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“He was having fun with his co-workers and I was sending him pictures of my belly and then all of a sudden he stopped talking to me. I knew something was wrong because he never stops texting me,” she said.

Straughan was in Winkler, Man. working with a Saskatoon construction company. 

Hague said Straughan hated being away from home.

“When he was home with me, his number one priority was to always make sure I was happy and he always wanted to do whatever I wanted to do,” she said.

Hague said Straughen was always trying to please other people. “He basically based his life around helping others,” Hague said.

Those comments were echoed on social media through his friends.

A user named Kaylee Henderson wrote:

“You didn’t deserve what happened! People disgust me you were truly the only one that was 100% real! You saved me when I needed to be saved all those years ago. When everybody turned their backs on me you were the only one there. You hung out with me everyday and told me everything will be OK!”

The family has set up two GoFundMe pages to help Straughan’s children and to pay for the funeral costs.

29-year-old Justin Leslie Bird was arrested in connection with the attack.

His next scheduled court appearance is Oct. 11.

Investigators have been working with the Crown to determine whether a charge of aggravated assault will be upgraded.

–With files from paNOW

Correction: An earlier version of this story used spelling of Zackary provided by Winkler police, who identified the victim as Zachary.