Canada Rinaldi sustained a concussion, a broken nose, three broken teeth and eight stitches to her face following the March 22 attack
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- Canada Rinaldi of Oklahoma, 27, was “violently assaulted” during her bachelorette trip on March 22, per a GoFundMe campaign dedicated to her recovery.
- The woman sustained a broken nose and three broken teeth, and had eight stitches to her face following the night out in Dallas.
- The Dallas Police Department has since announced the arrest of a man accused of having “assaulted two victims” in the area.
A man has been arrested after allegedly assaulting an Oklahoma bride-to-be during her bachelorette trip in Dallas.
Canada Rinaldi was celebrating her bachelorette party on the night of Saturday, March 22 — before a stranger “approached her out of nowhere and violently assaulted her until she was unconscious,” according to a GoFundMe page dedicated to the 27-year-old woman’s recovery.
As a result of the attack, Canada was left with “a concussion, a broken nose, 3 broken teeth and 8 stitches to her face” just a month before her wedding day. She has also racked up $10,000 in medical expenses from the ambulance, hospital stay and “ongoing care,” the fundraiser added.
Canada confirmed to PEOPLE earlier this week that she was attacked at around 2 a.m. local time on the morning of Sunday, March 23, as the bachelorette group walked to their Uber after leaving a club in Deep Ellum. At the time of her GoFundMe’s launch, a suspect had not yet been arrested.
“I don’t remember the attack, I only remember walking to my Uber and then being in and out of the ambulance and hospital,” Canada told PEOPLE of the incident at the time.
On Friday, March 28, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) confirmed on its website that 27-year-old Trevon Woodards had been arrested by the Bedford Police Department in connection with an aggravated assault.
The suspect is accused of having “assaulted two victims” in the 2600 block of Floyd Street — located in the Deep Ellum neighborhood — before 2 a.m. on March 23, per the DPD — which shared the suspect’s image across social media channels and asked for the public’s assistance.
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Local outlets including KDFW, ABC affiliate KWTX and NBC affiliate KXAS identified Woodards as the suspect in Canada’s attack. According to KDFW, Woodards has a criminal history, including previous assault charges, and was recently granted parole.
The DPD did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for further information on Saturday, March 29.
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Canada previously spoke with PEOPLE on March 27 about the attack — the aftermath of which was captured on a Lyft driver’s dash cam footage — stating that police had since named a possible suspect, a development which gave her “a lot of peace of mind.”
“My face is healing so quickly. I will be almost if not fully healed on the outside by the wedding, depending how my nose heals,” the bride-to-be said of her recovery. “I will still have the best day of my life with the person I love no matter what I look like.”
As she recalled separately to KDFW, Canada and her group were walking to their Uber when a man came up behind and hit her as she was “walking towards the back of the car.” She then remembered “waking up in an ambulance.” The footage of the attack was filmed by a nearby Lyft driver’s dash cam, showing police helping the woman after she fell to the ground.
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“And so I saw this man walk up behind Canada, and he reached his arm out, and it kind of looked like he was gonna take her cowgirl hat off of her head, but then immediately he just threw his arm back and punched her,” Brienna Rinaldi, the victim’s sister, told the outlet.
“I screamed at him. I said, ‘What’s wrong with you.’ And then once I saw Canada, I was just screaming her name, and I remember screaming, ‘My sister, my sister,’ ” Brienna added. “I hope she feels beautiful. I hope she feels like nothing can ever stop her. I want her to feel invincible and just, you know, looking ahead.”
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Kelly Peralta was reportedly also struck by the suspect when she attempted to intervene, per KXAS. She sustained a black eye and swelling.
As of March 29, the GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $17,000 of a $15,000 goal to assist Canada with covering expenses.
