ic] When he got me to
the closet, the thought crossed my mind that
if I went in there I was never going to
walk back out of there. When he saw how severe
I was, his jaw dropped. His eyes bugged out. I knew I was in bad shape. He was talking
to-- to the dispatch, telling them that he was going
to start shooting up the mall, that he was taking hostages. And the dispatcher said, where-- where are you. He said, follow the screams. I felt like I had to
fight the entire time. I was going to fight until I
was out of there, he was gone, or I was dead. [ominous music] My husband and I lived in a
house with our four children. I would just get up and
get the kids ready and fed, and everybody out the door. And then I would be home alone
with my youngest son, who was three years old at the time. We finished eating our breakfast
and we cleared the dishes from the sink, and I
turned on the TV for him so he could watch cartoons. And I told them that I was going
to go in and take a shower, and that the door was
going to be open for him if he needed to come get me. When I was done, I
opened the shower door and I heard a noise. And that kind of
got my attention. It sounded like change rattling. And when I glanced up then, as
I was grabbing my towel, I-- at the same time, I saw a
reflection in the mirror across from the shower. I also had the distinct smell
of cigarette smoke, and I-- nobody in our house smokes. And I knew that what
I saw in the mirror was not my husband because it
was not the outfit that he wore that day. The thought went through my
mind, this can't be real. And I just started praying that
I could get out of there alive. I started thinking about my son. I didn't know if he was OK. And I thought to just
keep drying myself off and act like he wasn't there. And maybe he was just
trying to steal something and he would just go away. So I actually walked
over to the bathroom door and I tried to push it closed. And he wouldn't let
me push it closed. He just kept it propped open
maybe about an inch or so. And he just kept watching
through the crack in the door. And I just kept my body
propped against it. And I did tell him-- I said, take whatever
you want and leave. Just go away. Just go. I wanted something on because
I thought if he was there and he was going to
rape me, I wanted to make it as difficult for
him as I possibly could. And once I got the
swimsuit on, I actually decided to go ahead
and try the jeans. So I did manage to get the jeans
on, too, while I was standing against the door. [ominous music] [sighs] Just saying, "God get
me out of here," you know, "don't let him hurt me. Don't let him kill me. Don't let him hurt my son. Just make him go away." And, finally, I didn't know
what to do so I decided I'd just scream for help and hope and
pray that the neighbors were out in their back yard
and would hear something. And so I just yelled
at the top of my lungs. And, at that point, he pushed
the door open and he came at me with a knife-- a six to eight inch steak
knife in his left hand. [birds chirping] [ominous music] Well, the cemetery is an old
slave yard, Civil War cemetery. And it has not been taken care
of the last several years. And I found it very
interesting, and I decided to start cleaning it up myself. The cemetery is about 300
yards away from the house, but you can't see
it from the house. It's in-- in the woods where
it's, you know, covered over. So I noticed some
large oak trees that were starting to
lean in a direction to where it could do some
damage to the headstones. So I knew they had to come down. I was already in
my vehicle and I realized I didn't have
my knife in my pocket. And being in the woods my--
just about my whole life-- you just never go in the
woods without a knife. And I came back into the
home to get my knife. The tree was about
18 inches around. It was a good size oak tree,
probably about 70 feet high. [ominous music] The tree that I was removing-- the main guideline
was tied to that tree about 30 feet in the air. I ran the rope through the
Y of the tree, anchored it to my truck. I then got my truck and
pulled as much tension as I could on that rope to
redirect the fall of that tree. I used a secondary rope. I attached it to
the main guideline, ran that through
the Y of the tree, wrapped it about four times
and hooked it on itself. The secondary rope was mainly
just to hold the tension on the main guideline. The hardest part was the
rigging of these ropes. After that was set, everything
was right, I cut the tree down. It fell perfectly, no problem. The job was over and done with. That's when I walked over
to disconnect my ropes. [ominous music] The secondary rope that
had been wrapped around one side of the Y of the tree-- as I had disconnected it
and turned to walk away, not realizing there was
still a lot of tension on the main
guideline, it started to whip around the tree. But I was already
turning, never saw it. And the last loop-- it came way out from
the tree, shattered-- hit me in the wrist,
shattering my watch, leaving a large
bruise on my chest, and then implanting
itself in my neck. At that time it yanked me
right up against the tree. This is when I realized
I was in serious trouble. I started pulling on the rope. I couldn't move it. [ominous music] I heard gurgling. I was starting to
run short on air. And I was becoming desperate. The first thing
that crossed my mind was, who was going to
take care of Sharon, my wife, that had been very
ill for the last several years. I didn't know what
was happening. None of this made sense. It was a beautiful day. Everything was going
so well, and now I am here fighting for my life. [ominous music] It was a Sunday. Sundays are usually
fairly busy, a lot of families, a lot of kids. Santa was in the mall, so
they were doing photographs with Santa. About 11:30 or noon there
were probably 25 to 30 people shopping in my store. I was up on a ladder
in our front window, hanging Christmas
balls from the ceiling. Joe was at the register
doing transactions. [ominous music] Ringing up
customers at the cash register on that
Sunday I heard what sounded like to be fireworks
that was down in the hallway of the mall, in the corridor. And they got louder,
they got clearer. And I looked in
that direction. I couldn't see anything
because it just kind of was in unreal situation. Customers started to run. And, at that point, I just
kind of froze up on the ladder. And it took me a couple of
seconds to process that it was two different guns. Through my experience in Iraq,
I recognize automatic gunfire. I stood there just looking,
until I think I finally heard Joe say, Kat, get down. And I got down off the
ladder and behind the counter with him. There was a lot of
yelling and running. Everybody was running out
the back of our store. As they ran out the back
of our-- of our store to the outside, the
gunman came into our store and was shooting up the
walls, the ceilings, shooting up the cash registers. The gunman-- he was,
I'd say, early 20s. He was dressed very well. It actually looked like he'd
just come from Sunday church. He had black slacks on,
a dress shirt, a tie. And here he is, holding
two rifles, ammo. I was thinking, I can't
believe I just got back from Iraq and now
I'm experiencing this all over again. It was a little difficult not
having my own weapon to fight back with, so I
felt very helpless. [ominous music] The shooter says, "Get up. Move to the back of the store." And, at that point,
I'm thinking well, I think we're going
to be held hostage. And so he moves us to
the back of the store, where he then gives us
orders and tells us, "I want you to
barricade everything up to the front of the store. I want to make sure
nobody can get back here. I don't want anybody
to see us back here." I was scared, more scared than I
was in the year in Iraq, mainly because he's
following us around. And it seemed like if we didn't
do exactly what he wanted and to his pleasing, that
he'd shoot more people. I knew he had already shot
people out in the hallway. I could see them laying
out in the hallway. I was just staring at
John, at the customer that was laying down next to me. And he was looking right at
me, and he had his wide eyes, these scared wide eyes. He told me that if I
wasn't back in 30 seconds, that he would shoot Joe and
John in the back of the head. And he actually put
his foot on my back, put the gun up to
the back of my head and said, "I will kill you. I'm not afraid. I've already shot people. I'm not scared," then
counting down from three. ic] I put my hand up
to block the knife, and I actually grabbed
hold of the blade just to try and prevent it
from going into my neck. And I told him-- I said, "You will not kill me." And he managed to get a
hold of both of my wrists at the same time,
and with both wrists he pulled me into the
master bedroom closet. And I just kept fighting. I kept trying to get away,
trying to-- trying to think through the whole scenario. I really wanted to
get out of there. But I didn't want to
go without my son. But when he got me
to the closet, I-- the thought crossed my mind
that if I went in there I was never going to walk
back out of there alive. And I managed to get one
hand out of his grasp, and I braced it against
the closet door. And he kept pulling me and
pulling me, trying to get me in. But I was standing zone that his
shoulder-- his right shoulder was to me. And so I just sunk my teeth
into his shoulder, right there. He still had the
knife in his hand. And he pinned me
down at knife point and he stuck one
knee on my chest and held me with one hand. And I had some
shelves in the closet. And he set his
knife on the shelf so that he'd have
both hands free. And, at that point, he
started to take my pants off. And I just kept kicking and
screaming and begging him not to kill me. Finally, I just thought, OK,
maybe if I cooperate he'll just do it, get it over
with, and leave. And so I said, "Fine. Do whatever you want to do. Just don't kill me." And so I kind of
relaxed at that point and he managed-- he had
already managed to get my pants and bathing suit bottoms off. And I heard him unzip his pants. And then, at that
point, I thought, there's no way I want
to go through this. [ominous music] He then choked me. And he grabbed hold
of my throat and he was trying to strangle me. And I was just like, "God,
please just get me out of here. Please let me be
here for my kids. If I die, my son is going to
be the one that finds me here." I've-- I felt like I had
to fight the entire time. I was going to fight until I
was out of there, he was gone, or I was dead. [ominous music] After the rope-- the hook went into my neck and
pulled me up against the tree, I was pinned. I was starting to
run short on air. I was getting frustrated, mad,
and scared at the same time. After tugging on the rope itself
and not being able to move, I called three
times for anybody. Hopefully, somebody
would hear me. It had been about
45 minutes or so after he had gone
into the woods. I'm sitting on a couch, and
my dog, Dusty, was outside. And she let out a
weird type of howl. Now, she howls that ambulances
that sounds like a wolf, but this was something I
had never heard before. And she had done it twice I went outside and I asked her,
"So, what's going on, girl?" And I listened. And I didn't hear anything, so
I just went back in the house. And that's-- unbeknownst to me,
that's when he had been calling out. And the only thing
I could possibly do was grab that rope
with both hands and rip it the rest of
the way out of my neck. [ominous music] As I grabbed that rope,
I will never forget-- I had a light appear
before my face. And it started off
just like a star and slowly covered
my whole face. A very calm,
soothing voice said, "Kevin, reach for your knife." At that time I was--
everything was under control. My breathing-- I was calm. I reached for my knife. About four cuts on this
one inch rope released. It shot forward 50 feet. I sat down alongside the
tree, starting to check how bad the damage was. And no matter where I stuck
my hand, it went into my neck. Right after I walked back
in the house went to sit on the couch, the phone rang. It was Kevin. He goes, call an ambulance. I decided to call 911 myself,
to make sure she got through. The operator answered the phone. I start to explain to
her what took place. She didn't understand what was
happening when I said there was a hook lodged in my neck,
that I'm back in a cemetery cutting a tree down. For some reason she was
thinking a fish hook. And then she asked
me to explain, , again what took place. I said a large, 4-inch tow hook. That's when she called
her supervisor over. She wanted me to
continue speaking to her so she can evaluate
my condition. The frame of mind I
was in at that time, and I knew the
condition was severe, I needed to hear her voice. Because I didn't believe I was
going to hear my wife, Sharon, or anybody else that day. I thought I was finished. [ominous music] The only thing that's
going through my head right now with his foot
on my back and a gun to the back of my
head is my family, thinking that I wasn't going
to get a chance to say goodbye. The next day was
my wife's birthday. Christmas was coming up. All this after Iraq and
the military, and this is where it ends. When the gunman told me
to go up and lock the gates and I had 30 seconds
to be back, he did have the gun pointed at Joe. And that was something
that-- that worried me. Because I was like,
this is taking too long. This is taking way too long. How much time do I really
have and how serious is he? He said three, two,
one, you're lucky she's doing the right thing. I'll let you live. He then sat us down,
sat us up, put us in a little circle in front of
him so he could see all of us. The gunman told us that
he was there that day because he wanted everybody to
feel his pain, know his anger. He wanted to be heard. He wanted to tell a story
of when he was a child and you went to a
summer camp that was sponsored by the police
where he felt like he was neglected. They were calling him names. They were cursing at him. They made him cry and wouldn't
let him call his family. He wanted to confront the
police that were sponsoring that summer camp so he
could tell them that-- how they changed his life. And eventually he told
us that, "Today I'm going to die by a
cop shooting me." He always kept the
guns pointed at us. He just had them in his
lap, one arm for each gun pointed at us at all times. And that was probably
the scary thing is that he wasn't showing any
emotion of what he had done. I couldn't read of what he was
going to do because he was just emotionless. I had no idea what was
going on with my son. I had no idea if this man had
even hurt him before he came in to see me. And that was my worst fear. [ominous music] He was standing up and I
thought that was a good chance to try and get out. So I got to my hands and
knees and actually tried to crawl around his legs
and get out the closet door. And he stopped me. He shoved my head into the
floor, so I was kind of curled up in a ball, and actually
stood with his foot on my back. And he just had me pinned
there in that position while he was still
looking for his knife. And, at that point,
I could hear my son trying to open my bedroom door. And he was crying, "Mommy!
Mommy! Mommy!" And I just-- I called out to him. And I said, you
know, "Mommy's here. Mommy's OK." He-- he had been beating me. I-- he punched me in
the face a few times. He did try and grab me-- he pulled my head back and he
tried to, like, twist my neck like he was trying
to break my neck. And there were picture frames
on the floor in the closet, and they had broken
while I was fighting him. And he couldn't find his knife,
so he broke off a 6-inch shard of glass from a
picture frame and then he, again, pulled my
head back by my hair and proceeded to use the
glass and just started stabbing at my neck
and slicing at my neck. And he tried slicing
at my wrists. And I had heard a story
one time about a girl who had been raped. And she started telling
the guy that was raping her and that Jesus loved him and
would forgive him, and he quit. And he left her. And I thought, OK, I'll try it. And so I started telling the
man, I said, "Jesus loves you and he'll forgive you. Even if you kill me,
he'll forgive you." And he got more angry,
and I just got stronger at that point. I thought, OK,
God, I can do this. I saw his eyes at
one point-- when he pulled my head back I
could just look into his eyes. And it was like, there was
so much anger and hatred, that someone could even talk
about love like that, that he just wanted to destroy it. [ominous music] So he threw me on the floor. He punched me in the face. He kicked me. He actually stomped
on my forehead with the bottom of
his boot, like he was trying to crush my skull. And I just laid there
for a second and he left. And I looked at the
window over our bathtub and I thought I
could go out now, but my little boy is
still in the house. So I got up and I ran
to the bedroom door. I had no idea where the guy was. I didn't know if he
left or where he went. And when I got to the bedroom
door I was trying to unlock it, and he jumped out
of the closet again. He punched me in the
face again and I-- [laughs] at that point I looked
at him and I said, "Yeah, and God will forgive
you for that one, too." And he finally just punched
me so hard it knocked me down. And he left, again,
and I went, I can't-- I can't fight him and get my son
and myself out of here alive. And I also thought,
I've seen his face and I could identify him. And there's no way he's going
to let me get out of here alive. [ominous music] I wasn't moving at that time. I was afraid to even look down. I had my neck
clamped or at least I thought I had it clamped. I needed to hear her voice, but
I was in a state of confusion because I didn't think I
was going to make it out of there that day. And I was tempted to hang up
with her and call my wife. I wanted to go to him, but I
knew not everybody could find the cemetery. And so I'm-- I'm torn. I'm not real sure what to do,
so I just stood there waiting for the ambulance to arrive. And it was a good thing I
did because the first vehicle passed me. And I'm waving my arms
screaming, "No," and pointing, and the second one spotted. And that's when they went
across the fields towards him. I could hear the sirens. I could hear them
getting closer. I could hear them
coming into the field. And then I could hear voices. And I yelled, "I'm back here." I told the operator
they're close. I could hear her telling
them the same thing. And, finally, when one of
them appeared in my sight, I said, "They're here. Thank you." And she says, "Thank
you and goodbye." Other people started to
arrive, evaluate my condition, checking all my vitals. Same time, I was still waiting
for my wife to show up. Where is she at? I know she was concerned. Finally, she showed up. I had to compose myself
because his head was tilted back and it looked very bad. [laughs] I just looked at her. I said, "Honey, how bad is it?" She goes, "You did one
heck of a good job." He was white. And you could see the
color was out of his face. There's very little blood. But with his head tilted
back, I could see all the way into his neck. And it did not look good. [ominous music] He pulled my hand off my neck,
and I was watching his eyes. When he saw what kind
of condition I was and how severe I
was, his jaw dropped. His eyes bugged out. I knew I was in bad shape. [ominous music] He tells them, "I've
come into the mall. I've had my weapons. I've shot it up. I may have killed somebody,
and I have hostages. I've snapped. I've lost it." And the dispatch
said, "Where-- where are you?" He said, "Follow the screams." He's getting more angry by
the way it's being handled, and more agitated. He had gotten a hold
of the negotiator, finally, and had asked that they
bring those two officers down so he could talk to them. [ominous music] After he called
the 911 dispatch, he was talking to
an old girlfriend. It seemed like he cared for her. And he was yelling at her
saying, "I tried to commit suicide three times this year. What did you think? There's something
wrong with me." He said, "I shot some people. I took some hostages. I'm-- I'm going to die today. I just wanted to call and
say I love you and goodbye." I couldn't help but think that
he was saying goodbye for us. All the sudden the
electricity turns off and all the lights shut off. And my heart just jumps. I half expected
SWAT or the police to come jump in at that time. It was very frightening. Because, immediately, he
escalated kind of back into when he first
came into the store. And, in a way, you
could sense fear in him. But, at the same time, he still
had his hands on those guns. The gunman told John to sit up
on a stool and-- and keep watch on the front of the store look
for policemen or look for any kind of movement. John pointed to a bunch
of boxes and said, "I-- I see some movement behind
those boxes, there." It was about 15 feet away. [ominous music] While we were moving
the-- the CD racks and barricading the
front of the store, there was a little boy, seemed
maybe about 12 years old, that was grasping the
very bottom of the rack. The kid was very
frightened, very scared. He was crying. And he was-- he was asking me
for help, saying, "Help me. Don't let him hurt me." And so I had to whisper to him. And I said, "Don't move. Be quiet. Don't talk." And I buried him with
some boxes in the corner. [ominous music] So the gunman stood up and
walked over to the boxes, moved a couple of them and said,
hey, why don't you come on out? I didn't know how he's
going to react to it. I didn't know if he was going to
be angry, if he was going to be upset, if he was
going to explode, if he was going
to shoot the kid. I had no reason to think
that he wouldn't shoot us. [ominous music] I figured, at
that point, that he was going to look
for the knife, again, and that he was just
going to finish the job. And I knew I was just so tired
from fighting, physically, that if I stayed I wasn't going
to be able to help my son, at all. And I thought, if
I get out, then there's a possibility that I
could get help for both of us. And it was a very, very
difficult decision to make, one I wish I never would
have had to have made. And, at that point, I
just went, OK God, you got to take care of my
son because I can't do it. I physically cannot
take care of him. I went over and I
climbed into the tub. I had opened the window and
I pushed the screen door out with everything I had. And I was just exhausted. I was physically exhausted. I had lost quite a bit of blood. I was covered in blood. I felt like a rag doll, and I
just flopped out of the window. I had-- I felt like I had very
little control at that point, and I landed on my head,
about four feet down. And I heard a popping sound
in my back and felt some pain. That's when everything
just started to hurt and I just wanted
to go to sleep. But my back-- it-- I felt like I was laying
on a giant rock right between my shoulder blades. [ominous music] And I got to my feet and
just got out to the street as fast as I could. And I just remembered taking,
you know, first aid, CPR classes, where they say don't
yell for help, yell fire, because it gets more attention. So I just started running
towards the street yelling, "Fire!
Fire! Fire!" And I looked to
my left and there was a car with its
headlights on, just parked on the side of the road. And I just kept
looking at the person. And then I realized
that it was a woman. I ended up crossing the
street and I stood right in front of her car. And I said, "Please help." And she didn't roll
down the windows. She didn't open the door. She didn't do anything. But she did call 911. And when she honked the
horn, the four people that were in the house that
she was parked in front of came out. And I do remember one of the men
just looking at me and saying, "Oh, my god." [ominous music] And he said, "Calm-- I'm not going to hurt you. Settle down. Why don't you come over
here, sit down, and join-- join them. Just go over there
and sit down." So the kid walked over with his
head down, and he was crying. He was very upset. And I tried to make eye contact
with him, to look at him and to try to make him feel
like it was going to be OK, to try to-- try to
settle him down. [ominous music] The gunman, at this point, is
on the phone with a negotiator who is requesting that they
be allowed to bring in medics to get the-- the
victim that was shot. And at first he
said, absolutely not. He didn't want
anybody coming in. Probably after
about five minutes or so he decides that it would
be OK if two medics came in, removed him as
fast as they could. If that went well, then
he would release the boy. [ominous music] I kept calling my wife-- two, three, four times. I had to leave a
message for her. And I said, "Amber, this is me. There's been a
shooting in the mall. I'm being held hostage. I love you." When I was talking
to my parents, it was just trying to explain
the situation the best I could without saying anything
that might anger him. When I was listening to Joe and
John both call their families and tell them, they
were goodbye calls. And that-- that was hard. I didn't know what's going
to happen in the next minute and the next hour. I just wanted to say that,
you know, I loved her. I was very frustrated. Deep inside, my heart hurt that
I couldn't get a hold of her. Right now he's-- sitting down. He's still got the
guns trained on us, and he starts to realize that
he shot seven people outside. He knew the amount of
people that he shot, plus a negotiator told him. So taking all that in,
plus he's taking hostages, he starts to cry. He's shaking, being
very emotional. [ominous music] When he decided to let the boy
go, he got real close to him, looked him in the
eye, and he said," "I was traumatized
when I was 12. I want you to walk away from
this and live a normal life. I don't want you to be
traumatized by what happened today. Walk out of here. Feel good, and just know
that everything's OK." He told them that he
would be releasing him, that I would lock him up to
the front and let him out. He told her to let the
boy go, unlock the gate, and then come right back. Otherwise, you know, he was
still going to shoot us. I-- I was worried that she
would just take the opportunity and keep herself safe
and run out of the gate. That-- that did cross
my mind and it kept-- it scared me to think
that, if it was me, would-- would I just run and just
worry about myself and take my chances or would
I come back and-- and face the gunman, again? nous mu] And I said, "Please help me. This guy broke into my house. He tried to kill me. He raped me. And my baby boy is
still in there." The guy had left the house, had
run right in front of my son, watching TV. And when he left, the door
was standing wide open and my son walked through
the house looking for me and found the blood
in the closet and all over the bathroom. And he went to the
front door then, and he put his tennis shoes on. And the two men
actually went over and they found my son stomping
in mud puddles in the driveway. [laughs] One of the
ladies walked over. You know, one was
taking care of me. And pretty soon one is standing
over me and she has my son. And she goes, "Is
this your little boy?" And I was like, "Yeah." and I said, "Hey, Dakota. Mommy's OK. We're going to be OK." My hair was red from the blood. I mean, I'm sure he
didn't recognize me, but the voice was the same. [ominous music] They immobilized the hook. They taped it to my
chest because it was-- they knew it was too close to
any serious blood vessels that could have already been damaged. And if one of them
ruptured, there wasn't anything they could do. When I asked to see my wife
before they loaded me up, she said, "I will see
you in a little while," and gave me a hug and a kiss. [ominous music] When they were working on
me, I said, "Does anybody have a mirror so I
can see what I did?" I could see everybody starting
to look at each other. It's like, do we or don't we? Then they brought a
large mirror over. I'm glad they did. But when I really saw how
bad this was, it shook me up. And she said to me-- she goes,
I can do one better than that. I just got a brand new
digital camera for Christmas. I said, "Oh, would you, please?" And she sent them to my email. [ominous music] I did not think of running. I-- I couldn't do it. It was my store. It was my employee and
one of my customers. I felt like they were
my responsibility. For Katherine to go up to the
front gate and have a way out, but to come back to us and
continue being held hostage-- I think that was very
courageous of her. [ominous music] The negotiator had
contacted the gunman and told him that the police
officers that he was looking for don't work there anymore. He doesn't have a
way to find them. After he found out that he
wasn't going to get, you know, what he wanted out
of his demands, his demeanor
changed drastically. And the gunman asked him,
"How many people did I shoot? Did I kill anybody?" And the gunman seemed very
somber from the answer that he received. [ominous music] He started to cry
harder, at that point. And he said, "Do you think
I'll get the death penalty?" And I said, "You
shot seven people. You might've killed somebody. That's what they give
the death penalty for." I told them to give
his guns to me. So he took them
off his shoulder. I unloaded them
and took them apart so they couldn't be used again. And I moved them to the
other side of the store so that we were safe, that this
was it, that he doesn't have any more power. [ominous music] I see 50 plus SWAT out there
with their rifles pointed all at me. And, for a second,
I am just absolutely terrified because I'm
running out saying, "Save me. Help me," you know,
"get me out of this." It almost brought
tears in my eyes to know that I was
going to see my family, my wife would be outside, that
I'm going to survive this. I think it was a
little bit of time, probably within a
half hour, 40 minutes, before Sharon came
up to my side. And that's when he broke down
crying, because it was over. [music playing] I survived because I know
that day I was not there alone. Whatever it was that I saw that
told me to reach for my knife is probably what saved my life. My wife ran up to me, gave
me a big hug, and it was-- I-- I broke down crying. It was just an
overwhelming experience to be in the arms of
the one I love again, after surviving all of that. [ominous music] I survived
because I am strong. I handled the situation calmly. I didn't run away. [ominous music] I had multiple lacerations
to my hands, feet, legs, just from the broken
glass and the struggle. There were 11 stab wounds
to the neck and chest. I had a giant footprint or a--
well, a large bruise on my back from him stomping on my back. And then, when he
stomped on my forehead, I had a bruise of the
imprint of his boot tread. [ominous music] He was actually living two
lots over from where we were. And I didn't realize it,
but they-- the police believed that he had
been stalking me. I survived because I
wouldn't quit fighting. I survived because I wasn't
ready to leave my kids. And I survived because
God spared my life.
