Cadet leader faces life-altering injuries after ‘senseless’ attack | Hanomansing Live

An update to a story we first brought you on Monday. The family of a cadet captain assaulted during a poppy drive in Hamilton this weekend says he is currently unable to walk. 59-year-old Kenneth Kunkel was supervising young air cadets on Sunday. They were selling poppies outside a mall. Police say the assault happened after Kunkel confronted two boys who had activated an air horn near the ear of the cadets. They saw a woman who was not initially involved step in. They say one of the boys hit him several times, leaving him with what they describe as life-altering injuries. Police say 48-year-old Estella Quintanilla, as well as a 12-year-old boy, were arrested on Monday. Tell us more about this long recovery process. Let's connect with his daughter, Kimberly. Dietrich joins us now. Kimberly, obviously an incredibly difficult and confusing time. How are you and your family doing? We're definitely taking it one day at a time. It's very hard. We're still processing everything, but we have amazing support for us in that. So just taking it a day at a time. How's your father doing? He's in good spirit. He's also processing. He's quite emotional about everything. I got to see him today with my grandmother. So he's trying his hardest to recover here. So what happened to him exactly? I mean, we know as much as most people know with what the police have released out there, right? So, you know, he was assaulted by this lady, which has now resulted in, you know, him not being able to use his legs as of now. So, and yeah, it's a lot. So we know basically as much as everyone else does. So, I mean, so I guess what they said is there was this confrontation in a restaurant, I guess. This woman intervened and your dad got pushed to the ground. Is that your understanding? And in the process of that happening, he got injured so badly that currently he's not able to walk. Is that right? Yeah, so it originally started with, you know, cadets having air horns put at their ear by those boys, and then my dad went in there to confront those boys, and then this lady came out of nowhere type thing, and then... Um, you know, put, we don't know if she pushed him or what she, you know, did to be able to have so much force to hit him against the wall, which then resulted in this. Um, and then the little boy took that opportunity to then attack my dad further while he was unable to move on the ground. You know, we say this so often when it comes to crimes or alleged crimes, the word senseless, but man, this one really seems senseless. How, how, how do you process it? I can't, to be honest, you know, I, I just want to know what was going on through their minds, right? And like, just that little boy and the sheer amount of violence that he, he did there too, right? I just don't know how to process it, right? I just, I don't know the motives. I don't know why someone would even think of doing something like that. And it's not even as if, not that what I'm about to say would justify it, but it's not even as if this was road rage, you know, something happened on the road and both parties are mad or that it was at a sporting event and both parties are worked up. Your dad was helping cadets sell poppies ahead of Remembrance Day. You can't pick a more benign event than that. So let's talk a little bit about selling poppies. You know, the cadets were doing it. Your dad was there supervising them. You've served in the cadets as well, from what I understand. Talk to us a little bit about the Poppy campaign, you know, in the wake of what's happened here. Yeah, you know. It's so important to actually talk about this because it's such an important thing to support our veterans and the poppies is what does that. So like you said, I've been in cadets, my brother's been in cadets and my dad has for 20 years and we've been there just like those cadets we're selling those poppies in conjunction with the Legion so we help the Legion with the selling of the poppy. Um, it's, It's so important To, you know, continue this and make sure that everyone has a poppy on them at all times. Yeah, absolutely. What do we know? What do you know about your dad's road to recovery? As of right now, it's taking it day by day. We haven't seen much progress in the last few days. The doctors are still doing lots of x-rays and we've been told, you know, it's about five days before we even see what kind of progress he'll be. So we have to wait at this time. One last thing, if there's anything good that's come out of this terrible moment, it's the support you and your family have been receiving from the community, from strangers. Maybe we can finish with you telling us about that. Yeah, I mean, as I want to say for my family, we're so grateful for the support, the words and the prayers and everything that everyone's been sending us. And not even on us, but like the cadets that were affected, everyone else who is in this situation. Thank you so much for being here. I'm just speechless with how much we've got and all. Just the words and everything everyone's been sending to me and my family and my father and the cadets. So we're so appreciative of everything. And we are so appreciative that you've taken the time to speak with us. It's a really important story. And I thank you for telling us what you have. Kimberly Dietrich, the daughter of Captain Kenneth Conklin, thank you so much. Thank you.