'People couldn't believe it when I told them.'

When Jimmy Simigak of Kangirsuk woke up this past Monday morning, his body was covered with ugly bruises and one leg remained swollen after a vicious beating from a gang of local thugs during the early hours of Sept. 6.

Simigak, reached by telephone at his home in Kangirsuk, said a group of boys and young men, aged 12 to 22, pummeled him with their fists, feet, a golf club and a hockey stick.

Police say they would like to see at least three constables, instead of two, stationed in every Nunavik community to help curb such violent incidents.

In the meantime, Simigak said he feels "very lucky" to have survived the beating.

Simigak said he went to visit his cousin Joe Nungak shortly after midnight last Friday night because Nungak had called him to say he was worried about a group of young people who were trying to break down his door.

"I was thinking I can handle it… I was so stupid," Simigak said.

Not long after Simigak arrived at Nungak's apartment, a stream of young boys and men pushed in through the front door into the living room and started beating Nungak.

"They started to attack Joe for no reason. I tried to stop them, but they started attacking me instead of Joe," he said.

Nungak managed to escape, but then Simigak said the attackers turned all their fury towards him, kicking, punching and whacking him with a golf club and hockey stick.

Simigak said he felt defenceless.

"I tried to defend myself with my arms. If there had been four guys, maybe I could have handled it," he said.

Simigak said he tried to put on his shoes to run away, but he couldn't put them on because the group of young boys and men continued to batter him.

"So I just ran away with no shoes, just on my bare feet. They are still sore from the rocks," he said.

The group pursued Simigak and the attack continued outside in the dark until two women passing by intervened.

Police showed up only after the gang had stopped beating him and fled, Simigak said.

Police arrested five teens the next day, but two, including the alleged ringleader, were still on the lam earlier this week.

The five apprehended by police were charged under the Young Offenders Act and released with conditions, said Capt. Tony Paquette of the Kativik Regional Police, speaking from Salluit earlier this week.

Paquette said he expected that the arrests of the two who remain at large, both over 18, would be made shortly.

"They will be dealt with as soon as we get hold of them," Paquette said.

Some of those arrested or sought in connection with the beating were involved in an earlier incident this year in Kangirsuk, in which a constable was kicked in the head by another man and injured.

Paquette flew into Kangirsuk from Salluit to assist with the investigation of the events of Sept. 6.

There may have been more than seven boys and men involved in the incident, he said, but statements made to police identified only seven individuals.

Paquette said the two KRPF constables in Kangirsuk were unable to arrive more quickly because the first call alerting them to the incident came only after the attack was over, or nearly over.

Simigak and Nungak were apparently not the only targets of the group, who had also beaten up another individual that night, police said.

Another man protected himself by using a two-by-four to barricade his door against the would-be intruders.

Simigak said everyone in Kangirsuk, population 460, is shocked that these youth would beat him up.

Simigak, 38, who describes himself as a "big man," works for Xstrata's Raglan mine in the shipping and receiving department and was on a rotation break from his job at the time of the beating.

"Everybody respects me. I have lots of friends, " Simigak said. "People couldn't believe it when I told them."

Simigak said leaders and police must do more because the members of the gang who beat him up have threatened others in Kangirsuk.