Police are looking for two suspects after a man was assaulted in downtown Halifax early Sunday morning.

Matt Mombourquette, a part-time audio technician with CTV News, says he and a young woman left a bar to wait for a cab early Sunday morning, when four guys, who were unknown to them, crossed Salter Street and approached the pair.

“The first guy went over my shoulder, punched me, I bent over, I didn’t get knocked out, I stood back up or went back up, the second guy hit me,” says Mombourquette.

The suspects fled the scene on foot and were last seen running towards Barrington Street, possibly with a number of other men.

“Right now it’s believed to be a random incident,” says Insp. Lindsay Hernden, with the Halifax Regional Police.

Mombourquette, 21, was taken to hospital where he later had surgery. His jaw is broken in two places – all the way through on one side, two hairline fractures on the other. He now has titanium rods in his jaw and stiches in his tongue.

The first suspect is described as a white man in his 20s with a thick build and bald or buzzed hair. He is six feet tall, or taller. He was wearing a grey hoodie at the time of the incident.

The second suspect is described as a white man in his 20s.

A downtown safety strategy was implemented in June 2012 to address a significant number of violent incidents happening in the downtown core.

As part of the strategy, dedicated officers started patrolling the bar district in pairs between midnight and 5 a.m. – the time of day the stats showed police were seeing the majority of assaults taking place both inside and outside bars.

“They were to go in and actually do permit checks to ensure they were dealing with issues of either overcrowding, or overconsumption, or underage drinking or that type of thing,” says Hernden.

The officers also work with the liquor enforcement unit to ensure bars follow proper hours of operation, number of people allowed inside the establishment, and not overserving customers.

“What the statistical information is telling us right now is we're seeing a significant reduction since the inception of these various programs,” says Hernden.

Mombourquette says he is sharing his story for one reason.

“Really, just that this kind of stuff stops happening.”

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact police.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jackie Foster