Woman Survives Random Knife Attack In Lacey
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March 15, 2005
By Keith Eldridge [/size]
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LACEY - A woman's plea for help goes unheeded as she struggles with a knife-wielding maniac. Shannon Young nearly bled to death, but an off-duty firefighter rushed in and saved her life.
Lacey police say this was such a random attack it could have happened anywhere. A woman buys a kitchen knife at the grocery store and then goes to a nearby hair salon and attacks a customer with no warning and no reason.
"I reached up and grabbed the knife because my concern was I'd rather have a few less fingers or whatever before I get stabbed like that again," Young said.
Shannon, who is a Fort Lewis soldier, is just out of the hospital. The knife wounds are still fresh on her chest and her fingers where she grabbed the knife to prevent a second attack by total stranger Rita Edwards. Police say Edwards went after Young with a kitchen knife she'd just purchased moments before.
It happened Friday evening just as Seja Kim was closing her Mystic Hair Cuts Salon. Shannon was her last customer as Edwards walked in, said nothing and quietly pulled out the knife.
Kim says, "She's got the knife and she stepped off and 'oh my God!' and I run away."
But Shannon couldn't run away. She says Edwards started stabbing her and she grabbed onto the knife blade. The two stumbled out in front of the pizza place next door, where she says a customer blocked the door.
"I'm asking for help," Shannon said. "I'm yelling: 'She's stabbing me, please help me! Please help me!' And the customer inside held the door shut so I couldn't come in."
Shannon says she had Edwards in a lock, but she was losing consciousness as people stood by and watched.
But just then Shannon says, "I heard somebody's voice from behind. It was a guy saying 'Hi, I'm Mike. I'm an EMT off-shift. Are you OK?' " Mike Michael was with his family nearby and came running.
"Instinct, I think. It never occurred to me to not go up," Michael said. "It's nothing anybody else at the fire department or any good citizen wouldn't do I don't think."
But while others may have called 911, he was the only one to jump in and save her.
"I think these folks were just adamantly scared," Shannon said. "I think they just did not know what to do."
She wants to publicly thank Mike for saving her life. Mike says, "I appreciate that, I really appreciate that. Glad to help her." He says the way Shannon was bleeding ,she could have easily bled to death.
Meanwhile, Edwards is in jail awaiting charges and a mental evaluation. The folks at the pizza place say a customer may have blocked the door but their employees never locked it and in fact rushed out with uniforms to help stop the bleeding.
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