Ontario woman charged with ‘assault with a weapon’ after allegedly spraying water gun at neighbor

David Krayden

“It just blows my mind that this has happened to me. The mental and financial stress that has put on my family, my children and my husband, is not right and is not fair.”

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have arrested a Simcoe County, Ontario woman, charging her with assault with a weapon after she allegedly sprayed her neighbor with a water gun. “I’ve cried myself to sleep many nights,” Wendy Washik told CTV News.

Washik, 58, works as an educational assistant and explained that it all happened when she was having some fun with the neighborhood children while having a barbecue in her backyard on Sept. 1. “Because I love kids and work with kids, I asked [one] if he had any water guns and he said: ‘Yeah,’” she said.

The woman began playfully pursuing one child from the backyard to the front and when she mistakenly sprayed a neighbor as Washik experimented with the water gun to see if it was working. “I was trying to figure out how the water gun was working. It’s not like I play with water guns at my age,” she explained on Tuesday. “I was going through the gate and it accidentally hit the neighbor that was maybe three feet away, [who was] cutting his grass.” Washik said she offered her apologies to the individual.

According to the OPP, a Norfolk County officer arrived on scene to investigate a domestic dispute with “the victim being physically assaulted.” Washik said the cop wouldn’t listen to her explanation. “They told my husband to ‘bring your wife out of the backyard,’ and that I’m being charged with assault with a weapon,” she recalled. “They didn’t ask me one single question.”

Washik was arrested and has been placed on administrative leave by the school board where she works. “It just blows my mind that this has happened to me,” Washik said. “The mental and financial stress that has put on my family, my children and my husband, is not right and is not fair.”