Family in shock after man tries to force his way into their Toronto hotel room

Jessica McKerral and Glen Guitard took their kids to a basketball tournament in North York, but were shocked when one evening Guitard had to fight off a man who tried to force his way into their hotel room

A Sudbury family is sounding the alarm after a co-ordinated attack on their North York hotel room the weekend of Feb. 20-21, which they said has left them, especially their 12 year-old son, deeply traumatized.

Jessica McKerral took to social media detailing the “terrifying and traumatic series of events” that saw her husband, Glen Guitard, thrash and rail with a man through their hotel room door for more than three minutes as the attacker attempted to enter the hotel room where McKerral and Guitard’s 12-year-old son, Carter, were staying.

McKerral and Guitard travelled to the area north of Toronto along with their younger son, Gavin, age 7, to cheer on Carter at a basketball tournament, staying at a Holiday Inn Express in North York during the trip.

But Gavin wasn’t feeling well, and by late Friday night, was vomiting. McKerral was standing in the bathroom near the front door attending to the boy at around midnight when there was a knock on the door.

Surprised, McKerral answered the door thinking one of Carter’s teammates who were also staying at the hotel was pranking them. She was even more surprised when she opened the door to find a teenage girl, aged maybe 14 or 15, standing there.

“She had this blank stare on her face, and she kind of looked past me into the room, looking behind me,” McKerral told Sudbury.com. She said she told the girl she had the wrong room, closed the door and attended to her son just a few feet away.

While she didn’t want to reveal much, she said police told her the young girl and the man who would arrive later were likely working together.

“Thank God my husband was there,” McKerral said. “He’s in very good shape, and he’s very strong, because … well, this could have gone a whole lot differently,” she said. “I just don’t understand, and we’re still trying to understand what the motive was because it was just such a weird thing to happen, and my son is just so traumatized.”

The next morning, McKerral was leaving with Gavin and saw the girl that had been at her door the night before sitting quietly in the lobby.

Carter’s tournament continued to unfold throughout the day on Saturday and after a long day of games, the father and son headed back to their hotel to get some sleep, gearing up for their next game at 8:30 a.m.

But that sleep was broken at 2 a.m., said Guitard, with a hammering at the door.

Half asleep, Guitard said he went to the door. He opened the door maybe six inches and saw a man standing there.

“I … didn’t go outside the door or anything like that, and just got a quick visual of the individual at the door,” he said. He said he told the man he was at the wrong door and “closed it immediately.”

Before heading back to bed, Guitard said he stepped into the washroom, but less than a minute later, the man began pounding on the door again.

“I ignored it for a little bit, and then he continued knocking again. I did not look through the peephole, to be diligent or safe or anything. Now, I’m really regretting that,” said Guitard, but he said he was more “annoyed” than anything at that point. “I was going to tell this guy, like, look, beat it,” he said, thinking the man was intoxicated. “You think innocently, that it’s innocent, until something really bad happens.”

Guitard said he opened the door, “only an inch or two,” but as soon as he had opened it just a crack, the man body-checked the door and was “trying to force entry.”

The security footage from the hotel would later show the man waited outside the door to their hotel room for approximately 13 minutes, “staring blankly at the door,” said McKerral.

For the next three minutes or so, Guitard said he fought with the man, who had propped his foot inside the door jam. “My body’s in shock at that point, right? And I’m just kind of doing what I can to make sure that my family’s safe.”

Guittard said he pushed the man and tried to slam the door open and closed on him, “I was squishing any body part I could inside that door,” he said.

He said he also started screaming for help, trying to alert security or people in neighbouring rooms to the attack, or even “spook” the man himself. And while it may have worked to scare off the attacker, Guitard fears his own screams are “probably what traumatized my son the most, to be honest with you.” He was unable to speak after he said this, his voice choked with emotion for a moment.

But it was Carter who surprised them all. Although the situation was about as frightening as a family can encounter, and with his father under attack, the couple said their twelve-year-old went into “superhero mode”. He immediately picked up the phone and dialed 911, telling the operator everything that happened until the man ran away, leaving his father able to continue the call.

Carter hasn’t been able to go back to school yet, and his parents are making all the arrangements he needs to work through this traumatic event, but it will take time, said McKerral. She’s grateful her son was so prepared to help his father, she said, but angry he had to experience such an awful night.

And it was a long night after the attack.

Though Carter called police immediately, and both Guitard and McKerral said the York Regional Police have been excellent since, there was a one-hour-lapse between the attack and the arrival of officers at the hotel.

That’s 60 minutes where Guitard and his 12-year-old son sat on a hotel bed, “not sure whether the man had a weapon, and whether or not he would come back. It was definitely a long night and a lot to process the following day.”

Now that the family is home and together, McKerral and Guitard are worried about other families who might experience the same thing. There was no security preventing these people from wandering the halls and stairways of this hotel, or many hotels, said McKerral, and there were kids everywhere.

“They could have key-only access to elevators or stairways, but most don’t, they are just open to anyone.”

They are also pressing charges, should the man be apprehended.

And because the York Regional Police offered them some safety information, they wanted to pass it along to other Sudbury families.

Always engage the deadbolt and security latch
Never open your hotel door to unknown individuals — especially at night
Call the front desk or police immediately if something feels wrong
Be hyper-aware when travelling with children

Jenny Lamothe is a reporter for Sudbury.com.