'Vicious, random, and unprovoked': 9-year sentence for attack on mother outside Edmonton daycare

Judge Sharpe noted the 'vicious, random, and unprovoked' nature of the attack and how the CCTV video showed Rabbit strangling her for nearly 4 1/2 minutes.

The man who slammed an Edmonton mother to the ground and strangled her for more than four minutes as her children looked on last July has been sentenced to nine years in prison by an Alberta Provincial Court judge.

Rockie Rabbit, 31, pleaded guilty in December of 2021 to aggravated assault and overcoming resistance by choking.

The pleas followed a violent, methamphetamine-fuelled attack on a 39-year-old woman who was picking up her children from a downtown daycare and was recorded by a security camera.

“The CCTV footage displays frighteningly uncontrolled and brutally vicious assaultive behaviour,” said Judge Carrie Sharpe in sentencing Rabbit to nine years on each count.

“This is yet another horrific example of the scourge on the community caused by methamphetamine.”

The sentences are to be served concurrently, and with 1 1/2 credit for time already spent in custody, Rabbit has just under eight years left to serve.

Sharpe noted the “vicious, random, and unprovoked” nature of the attack and how the CCTV video showed Rabbit strangling her for nearly 4 1/2 minutes.