Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Have To Get Him Off Of Me

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

Jennifer fights back with incredible courage when an intruder breaks into her apartment and sexually assaults and stabs her. Sampson, a corn farmer in Kershaw County, was attempting to dislodge a corn cob stuck in his harvester when his hand is pulled into the machine. Norina is working as an elementary school principal when a man with a machete attacks her.Apartments.com - To find whatever you’re searching for and more visit apartments.com the place to find a place.Progressive - Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.Stamps - Go to Stamps.com and use code isurvived to get sixty days risk-free!Tempo - Check out TempoMeals.com/SURVIVED for 60% off your first box!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. I have to get him off of me. I have to stop this. I cannot be raped and I cannot be killed. Real people. I've never felt pain like that before. Each time I cut through the nerve, it was almost like I was going to pass out.

Who faced death? He was in a rage at that point. His face was very intent. He wanted... to kill me. And live to tell how. Once I enraged him, the fight was on. And it wasn't going to stop until one of us had won.

And one of us had lost. This is I survived. It's April 2000 in Houston, Texas. Jennifer is searching for an apartment before moving. I had moved to Houston. And right before I had moved there, I'd gone driven over to Houston, and spent a weekend checking out apartment complexes

throughout the area. I really wanted a place that was going to be as safe and secure as possible. This apartment complex was close to downtown, had a full perimeter fence around it, about an eight-foot-tall fence. Then they also had on-duty security guards at all times. Jennifer moved into an apartment on the second floor. About 10 o'clock that evening, one of my girlfriends called and said that they were going to go to this place called the Ale House. and what I like to come. So I met up with her

and rode over with her to the ale house and I had a good time we ran into some friends and had a nice evening. I had run into a fellow there and he offered to give me a ride home which he did and dropped me off back at my apartment complex

probably about one o'clock in the morning. I went upstairs to the second level where my apartment was and entered my apartment, closed it, put the dead bolt on, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I believe I was in a very, very sound sleep. And when I felt suddenly, as I'm coming awake, someone on top of me,

someone with their body weight pressing down and holding my body down and grabbing at my underwear and trying to yank them off. And I was very befuddled. I didn't know what was happening. What's going on? I can still remember from that point in time, though, the feeling of his leg hair against my legs, that coarseness.

And I've reached my hands up, and I feel this knife that's being held against my throat. And it was the clearest thought that went through my brain and woke me up, oh, I'm being raped. All I can remember calling doing is screaming, no, please don't hurt me, and trying to push away this knife, and yet kicking and moving and screaming

to please stop, please don't hurt me. As soon as I put my hand up to his hand, I enraged him. And once I enraged him, the fight was on. and it wasn't going to stop until one of us had won and one of us had lost. I took a very hard blow to my right eye. There was just this explosion of blood

that, like a hot waterfall, just pouring out. And I had my second rational or clear-headed thought, and that was, he's cut my eye out. Jennifer's face had been slashed open. I could feel the blade of this knife. and I just felt like I have to get him off of me. I have to stop this. I cannot be raped and I cannot be killed.

All I could see of him was the outline of his hair, that it seemed to be fairly short, straight hair. The knife was flailing everywhere. I was screaming so loudly that I later found out approximately 20 people in 15 different units in my apartment complex all woke up to my screams. Everyone heard my screams. Not a single one of those people called the police. He was telling me to shut up. He was saying my name, Jennifer, shut the hell up. I was trying to think, who is this? He knows me. It's someone I know. And I was trying to rattle

through who it could be. Jennifer did not recognize her attacker's voice. I candidly felt very confident that I was going to get him to stop. I thought my power of persuasion, my power of my strength, my power of my struggle, whatever it was, I was going to use it, and I was going to get this man to stop. The attacker was on top of Jennifer with his knife to her throat. I didn't think of what the next step could do. be not until my throat was slit.

My throat was cut. Then I knew that that was the first time that I thought, I'm going to die. I didn't want to die. And I just wanted to get out of there. And I would have done anything to live at that moment. And when he told me, no, don't look at me. bitch. Even as much as my might want it to, my brain, my law school education might

when telling me that I needed to gather evidence to be able to identify him, there was no way that I was going to do anything to aggravate, irritate, upset him. I was, I assured him, I promise, I won't look at you, I won't, I won't, I won't. And I didn't. Because he made it very clear that if I did anything other than what he wanted me to do at that moment, I was, I was, I that he would kill me. He drags me across the room and tells me to get in the bathroom. The attacker returned to the bedroom to get his knife. Jennifer slammed the bathroom door shut.

The bathroom didn't have a lock on the door. So the first thing I do when I got in there was press up my body against the door of the bathroom. And I realized that my body standing there is not going to hold it shut. So I slide down, put my back up to the bathroom door. and my feet up against the bathtub. And I'm just pushed and hold as hard as I can. At that moment, or moments, suddenly it's quiet.

And I could hear him, and I can still hear today, the sound of him moving in my apartment, grabbing things, moving things. And then I hear the sound of his pants zipping up, just a zipper going up. And I keep waiting in there, and I'm bleeding so profusely. And I know it's my throat now. I reach around and I grab the toilet roll off the toilet paper holder and yank that off and

I stick that up against my throat. And I wait. I just knew I had to get out of there because I, the option was I stay in there, cowering, scared of what's on the other side of the door. If I do that, I'm going to bleed to death. I decided to open the door to come out, which was a big, decision to do because I thought maybe he's waiting quietly to surprise me. My hands are covered in blood and they're really slick and I can't get a good grip on the door

handle. And I had pressed that door so incredibly hard with my feet that I had jammed it shut. And I'm standing there jerking and jerking and jerking and jerking trying to get this door open and I can't. And I had another one of those thoughts and it was, I've survived the attack but I'm going to bleed to death in here because I can't open the bathroom door. But fortunately, I do open the bathroom door. I jerk it open.

And I crawl out at this point, I go back on my hands and knees. I say hello when I crawl out thinking, I don't know why I'm sending a greeting, but I want to know if he's there. And there's no reply. And so I start trying to turn on the lights. The power had been cut. The first thought that came to my mind

was that did I not pay the last? electric bill and they turn off electricity tonight of all nights. But then I go and try to find my phone and get my phone and I go to my phone and it's dead. The phone line had also been cut. I'm sitting on the sofa and I'm terrified that maybe he's behind the sofa. Maybe he's in the kitchen. I can't tell. And I find my cell phone and I dial 911.

I'm on 911. Please call me. Okay. Man? That's fun everywhere. I'm covered in blood. You, my name. I don't know who it was. I know I locked the door.

I don't like any of my apartment. Okay, man. I calm down the life. I don't know. I don't know. We have crazy people in this world. You're gonna say on this world. You're gonna say on the next to death.

What's your name? My name is Bridget. He kept hanging on the phone. There you go. You're doing fun, right? Now you're doing fun. He kept hanging on with me, and it became a friend, someone I could trust on that phone. He was the only safety that I had.

Probably about 15 minutes into this 911 call, there comes a pounding on my front door. And I tell the dispatcher they're here. And he goes, I've got the... the Houston Fire and police on my screen and they're not there yet. Don't answer the door right now. Out of the old depot, I can't see anything. The voice on the other side of the door was promising me help, but it was very insistent

that I opened this door. I tell, relate this to my dispatcher, and he says, Jennifer, if you don't know who this on the other side, do not open the door. This person on the other side of the door continues to knock and to pound. He keeps saying his name. He said, I'll show you with my badge. Just open the door and let me in.

Richard, the 911 dispatcher, urged her not to open the door. And I'm pretty hysterical. I'm saying, please, I got to get out of here. I got to get help. And he said, I just want you to wait. You're going to be okay. just wait. Time moved very slowly for me during that period and I couldn't stop the bleeding. I had had my face slashed from this above my eyebrow, crossed the bridge of my nose, and it crossed

over the corner here of my eye, and then a very deep slice starting here in my cheek and going down to just nicking the jugular. I'd also been stabbed through the throat as well as two deep stab wounds through my arm. And I knew that I had to get word to my mother. I needed my mother. Because I felt, did I do something to have deserved it, to have brought this on? But I also knew that this was going to break her heart, especially if I died. There's suddenly lots of voices outside the door, you know, saying Houston, identifying themselves

to Houston Fire and Police, and my dispatcher confirms with me that it is in fact there and I can go. And I opened the door and I collapsed pretty much out on the floor in the hallway. And the first thing that I hear, well, all this going on, is that they have a security guard injured as well. And I started crying. someone else has been hurt from this. The security guard claimed to have been injured in a struggle with Jennifer's attacker. When the police came into my apartment, after they'd already taken me away, they had found some belongings. They had found in the apartment a pair of underwear, a Pinkerton Security Guard hat, a belt, and a glove.

and they also found a knife. Police took the security guard in for questioning. The first thing they do, apparently, is ask, do they want to take his boots? He had, like, cowboy boots on. And they pulls off his boots, and he had white socks on that were splattered with blood. And then they take his shirt,

and he has blood on his torso. They took off his pants. and he has no underwear on. The on-duty security guard for my apartment complex had committed this attack. I do believe that had I opened that door, he would have killed me. The police and the detectives,

they all came into the hospital into the emergency room and post-surgery and were like, girl, you put up one. put up one hell of a fight. I mean, there was like blood on the ceiling. There was on the walls. I mean, it was flying.

Bed clothes were everywhere. And I did. I fought with everything in me. Because despite the fact having been slashed and stabbed and cut, he did not succeed in raping me. Brian Wayne Gibson was convicted of aggravated burglary with intent to commit sexual assault. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Jennifer and 911 dispatcher Richard remain friends to this day. Having instinct, intuition, and a big heart, he saved my life. And for that, he will always be one of the most important people that's ever impacted my life. And I was lucky enough that when I got married, he came to my wedding. It's kind of wild that in 26, people are still making regular. post office runs like it's 1926. My husband runs a small business and for the longest time, his shipping days were a whole ordeal, loading boxes, waiting in line, losing half a morning at the post office. That's where Stamps.com comes in to bring us into the present day. Now you can mail and ship

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perfect home by using Apartments.com. No more swiping and awkward first dates. Make it easier to get a place that gets you. Visit Apartments.com, the place to find a place. It's September 2007 in Kirshaw County, South Carolina. Samson is working on his family's farm. The farm is 50 acres. It's our hobby. Right now we grow corn here and we hunt and fish. Beautiful morning. It was warm, sunshiny day. I knew it was only to take a couple hours to pick the load of corn. The corn picker hooks to the back of the farm tractor.

And on the back of the corn picker, you pull a trailer. And the corn picker, you pull it down each row of corn, and it actually takes the ear of corn off the stalk. As the ear of corn goes through the machine, it takes the shook off the corn. And then the corn is dropped into the corn, an elevator, the elevator shoots it back into the wagon. I had already picked a load of corn. The trailer was loaded. I was headed up to the barn to store it into the barn. I walked around to the corn picker cleaning it off, cleaning the shucks off the, just a lot of trash and stuff had built up on the

picker. I noticed underneath of it was a corn stalk stuck up under the bottom of the corn picker. I could not pull it out. I mean, I tried pulling it out, couldn't get it out. Samson started the corn picker and tried to remove the jammed corn stalk. Everything is moving now. I walked back to the corn picker, stick my arm inside, grab the stalk, and as I was pulling on the stalk, the rollers that take the shucks off the corn, grabbed my glove, and it pulled my hand up into the rollers. At that time, I was trapped.

I thought, man, what a big dummy sticking my hand into this machine rolling. and operating, and I started pulling my hand out. I couldn't get my hand out. By now, they steel cleats on the roller had taken the back of the glove off the back of my hand, and started cutting into my skin. The more I pulled, the further it pulled my hand up into the rollers. My hand was up, and then my fingers was down over like this.

It's almost like it was wedged. I was really mad at myself for doing that. I knew better, and I couldn't believe it happened. to me. Then I was thinking, my wife's going to kill me. The cell phone that I had had no service here on the farm, so I had no cell phone. The steel rollers is to continue cutting into the back of my hand. My hand's bleeding. It's probably swollen up three times as big as it should be. I was beginning to realize I'm in trouble that I've got to get this machine stopped somehow. To turn the machine off, you would get back onto the farm tractor and it

And there's a lever there. You push it straight down to turn it off. The lever was just beyond his reach. I knew I had to jam the machine. The only way that I could get those rollers stop was jamming the machine. One time I had one of my boots in my hand, and I thought about throwing it at the tractor,

hoping to hit that lever. But I knew that would be a heck of a shot to hit the lever. So I took the boot and tried to jam it down into the rollers. The rollers were so tight, and the boots were so thick. I would push the boot down and it would do nothing. I started throwing dirt, just grabbing handfuls of dirt and rocks with my left hand down into the machine. At one point, I physically tried to pull my hand off

to pull it out of the rollers and couldn't do it. The more I pulled, the further up into the rollers, it would take my hand. I'm thinking, man, I am big-time trouble. So I started hollering. I sat there and just holler as loud as I could. The road's about a quarter of a mile through the woods, and I knew I was hoping somebody,

maybe walking up the road that would hear me and would come in. But no one heard me. I was bound and determined to get loose. I knew my wife was going to be really mad at me because I messed my hand up. The whole time I was having to hold my hand in a certain position. Just continued bleeding. The whole time it's still bleeding.

The back of the hand was down to the bone. I mean, just all the meat on the back of the hand was gone. I always thought once I jammed that machine that I could just pull my hand right. out. I wouldn't have to worry about the rollers continue to pulling my hand. Then I started taking parts off of the back of the corn picker. Samson reached for a solid metal rod on the back of the corn picker. The rod is about eight to ten inches long. It's a three-quarters inch in diameter. And it holds the back plate onto the corn picker that the corn wagon attaches to. So it's a real

strong, solid piece of metal. It probably took 10 or 15 minutes of working to get that rod off. But I knew that was the only thing left. I couldn't, I didn't have anything else left to reach in order to jam the machine. Samson attempted to jam the rollers with the metal rod. I said, I've got to do something different. Jamming these rollers is not working because I had pushed and push and push with that big piece of metal and it wasn't doing anything.

So that's when I, when I grabbed the rod, I didn't even try to. put it in from the top, I said, I've got to go into the side. I knew there was some gears and a chain over there. And I knew if I could jam it up against the tire that was on the side of the machine, that that might jam the machine. So I reached, took the rod and reached around to the left side, but I dropped the right and almost got my finger. I felt the gears go over the top of my tips of my finger. Now I had to struggle to reach and fill around on the ground to find the ride. I found the ride and tried it again. This time it worked. I jammed, I put it in a perfect spot,

jammed it up against the tire, and now the rollers quit rolling. The whole machine was sitting there just jerking from the gears being jammed up in it. I had my knees up against the machine, took my left hand, and grabbed my hold of my right forearm, and pull. I mean, I pulled.

I'm a pretty good-sized guy, so I was putting a lot of pressure on it and pulling. and it wouldn't come off. So I thought then I needed to, maybe my gloves were hung up there. And I was thinking I needed to cut my glove off. I knew I had my pocket knife. I reached in my pocket and it was about two and a half, three inch long knife. And I was able to get it open with my left hand and reached back in there and started

cutting away on the gloves. I thought there was gloves, but it was actually cutting my fingers. Samson had cut three of his fingers off. Each time I would get one loose, I would pull my hand to try to pull my hand. out of there. It still wasn't working. Still wasn't working. Still couldn't get my hand loose. Sparks began jumping from the jammed engine. I was in a hurry. I knew I knew I had to get loose and it seemed like it was just seconds. Once I cut through, I was able to pull the nubs of my fingers up and straighten them up to where all I had to do is pull my hand down.

And that's when the fire broke out. The corn shops really dry, so the sparks had had sparked the fire. And at first it was just a small fire. I took my left hand and started pushing them away and patting them down trying to put the fire out and it was almost like all of a sudden just like gasoline exploded here goes to fire just spread everywhere it was on my right side it was all around me it was up inside of the machine my arm was in a furnace the skin on my forearm was melting it was just dripping like plastic the flames was shooting around the machine it was burning burning my hair singing my hair. The wind was blowing toward me. All those flames was coming toward me.

And all I thought about was just I wasn't going to die there. There's no way I was going to die. Started thinking my son and my wife. I didn't want them coming down, finding me burnt to death right there on my machine. At one point, I saw, I was kind of looking down and saw my mom and my wife fighting over where I was going to be buried. My mom wanted me buried in Kentucky. and my wife wanted me buried here in South Carolina. And it was almost like, man, I am not going to die here. There's no way I'm going to let this happen. And at that point, I truly tried to pull my hand off again.

With the forearm melting, I still pushed up against it and screaming as loud as I could and tried to pull my arm off again. I mean, that's probably the hardest that I pulled. And I just couldn't believe my hand would still would not come free. By now my arm was really on fire. I grabbed my pocket knife,

and that's when I jammed a knife into my forearm and started cutting the meat away. Once I jammed that knife into my arm, the nerves, it was almost like breathtaking. Each time I cut through the nerve, it was almost like I was going to pass out. I was screaming. Each time I would cut through one,

I would scream as loud as I could. I mean, that was pain. I mean, let me tell you, that was the worst pain I've ever felt. To break the bone, I had to raise up as high as I could, and then I dropped to the ground with all my weight. And I knew I only had seconds because the fire was continuing getting bigger. I was going so quick. I was in hopper mode.

The corn pickers tire was burning. Once it burned close enough to the air pressure, it started, the tire just exploded. It exploded, and it was such a big explosion, And at the same time I broke the bone in my right arm, it was able to push me out of the fire, out of the flames about five feet. So I jumped up and thinking, I'm free, I'm free.

Finally, I'm free. And now I got to get help. So I run around in front of the tractor and putting the fire out on my pants. My right leg was on fire. Every time my heart would beat, it would be a big, long stream of blood shooting out my arm.

While I was running to my truck, I had to take my left hand, and putting the flames out on my pants. I jumped into my truck, continued on up to the main road, which is about a quarter of a mile from the tractor. Got up to the road and I stopped and let the cars go by. And as the cars went by, I was waving at them, blowing the horn, waving my arm at them.

And there was blood shooting all over the windshield and all over the dashboard. So people were going by and not stop it. I pulled my truck out into the middle of the road and thought to myself, I mean, If I die, I'm gonna die right here. Or somebody's gonna, somebody's either gonna hit me or help me. Several cars went by and nobody would stop.

So at this point, I knew I couldn't go any further. I had to get help. Somebody had to help me there. I was losing a lot of blood. One of the people who had drove around me the first time had went up about a quarter of a mile to top the hill and turned around. And he came back.

When he arrived, I was sitting in the middle of red. He said, hey man, you're okay? And I said, no, I raised my arm up. He was squirting blood. And I said, no, I think I need a little help. And Doug jumps back and says, oh, and then all of a sudden his face just like blood red, and then he started sweating. He says, man, don't move.

Doug was a paramedic. He runs to his truck and gets his paramedic bag and starts packing these bandages on my arm, stopping the bleeding. He was talking to the 911 lady to get in the amulets, and he said, hey, we need We need a chopper in here too. This guy's in serious condition. He's starting to turn gray. We may lose him here.

Samson was airlifted to the hospital for emergency surgery. I had, of course, my arm cut off two inches above the elbow. Third degree burns underneath my arm here all the way back to my shoulder. I had third degree burns on my left hand and fingers. And I had fourth degree burns on my right leg, right above my knee. here and that was all the way down to the bone. We had six surgeries all total. Everything was skin grafted back and healing good. When I first saw my wife after the tube was taken out my throat, it was actually after a surgery. And I woke up. I was on a lot of pain killers.

I was a lot of pain, but she was holding my hand and kept telling me everything was going to be okay. She stayed there for three and a half weeks by my side. Lee and my wife, she never got mad at me. She was truly the person who helped me through it. I mean, she was truly very positive. And she told me just everything was going to be okay the whole time. She was very, very positive. Samson still farms corn in Kirshaw County.

I survived because I didn't want to die. I had too much to live for. I have a great family, very positive family. I have a great farm here and a great job. And I didn't want to die. I truly didn't want to die. This time of year, I'm really trying to stay on track with eating well. But between work, workouts, and life in general, cooking just isn't happening. That's why I've been loving tempo. They deliver fresh, chef-crafted, dietitian-approval. approved meals right to your door, and they're ready in just two minutes. It's real food, real fast. Each meal is perfectly portioned for lunch or dinner, so I can actually eat something balanced between recording and picking up the kids instead of grabbing a handful of snacks. And honestly, the variety keeps things exciting. Tempo drops 20 new recipes every week, all packed with nutrient-rich ingredients that actually taste amazing. Even athletes like Maria Sharapova swear by tempo for staying consistent with their wellness goals.

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Noreena is an elementary school principal. Well, I was in my office, and I looked at the clock. It was exactly 1123. I remember on the clock. And I had, a very, very strong, compelling need to make a phone call. And basically, I had no idea why I needed to do that, because that was very atypical of me. An elementary school principal, I don't have time

to just frivolously make phone calls. And so I called, asked to speak with my son. I told him I loved him and told him to have a good day in kindergarten. And as I was talking to him, I was looking at the entrance of my building, and I did notice that a man was tugging on the right-hand door, which is permanently locked. You can't get in that door. He looked like a little. He looked like a grandfather to me. So in my mind, I'm thinking, well, he's a grandfather, never been at our school. I need to go help him. A parent with the security pass had entered the school, and the man followed through the open doors. Well, I left my office, and my intent was to go find him. I went to the right after I got out of the office area in our lobby area. I thought that's where he would be.

When I got there, he wasn't there. But something else told me to turn around and look down the hallway to the left. And so I did, and when I looked down there, he was standing in the hallway outside of our kindergarten classroom, just kind of peeking in the door from the hallway, and I decided to approach him. And when I did, I obviously startled him. I don't think he anticipated anybody was coming up behind him. I said, excuse me, sir, I said, is there someone I can help you find? He immediately turned to me and started kind of digging around the left side of his stomach area and almost instantaneously pulled out from his left pant leg, what I now know is a machete.

That was our first encounter, and he started striking me immediately. As we maneuvered backward, I kept walking backward as he was hitting me. He didn't say a word at this time. He just was striking me over and over and over again. I don't know that I ever really felt the blows of being hit. I did not register any fear whatsoever. I was not afraid that I can recall. I don't remember any pain.

He just seemed intent on wanting to hurt me. Noreena received deep cuts to her hands while protecting her head. I screamed three things. The first thing was I screamed no. My mind was basically saying to him, you know, you don't do this in an elementary school. What are you doing? So I screamed no and then call 911, lock down.

I really felt that in my environment, it was just he and I. I did not feel like there was anyone else around that could help me at this moment in time. When we got just to about the door of the office area, he stopped and he took the machete across my stomach area. I jumped back and I had a key card hanging on my neck, and that actually took the blow of that swipe across my midsection.

From there, he ran from me. I went in the office area because I knew how to lock down my school. My thinking process is I just have to stop this man. Noreena sounded an alarm bell, which put the school into lockdown mode. And several of my teachers had cell phones, and I had directed them, if we ever needed to do something like this, to get on the cell phone and call for. help because there would be a good reason. And so several teachers were out there on their cell

phones calling 911, having no idea why they were even calling. The attacker entered a kindergarten classroom. He went directly for the children and he started taking his weapon and banging it on the tables to make loud noises and he started striking the children directly. The attacker struck the children with the back of the machete. The teacher, once she saw, what was going on here, she did intervene and she told him to stop hitting the children. She put her hand up to stop the machete from hitting her in the head and got cut across the palm of her hand. She told the children to run at that time. And of course in an elementary school we're always telling children not to run. So this was quite, they weren't sure what to

do. Some ran, some clung to their teacher because she was their security. Some hid under tables in the classroom. Some ran out into the hallway and ran down the hallway. Some ran out of the front of the school. Many of them had bruises all over their bodies, some on their heads, their backs, their legs, their arms. The only thing I recall is their screams over and over again. Those are things that don't easily disappear from your head. And to this day that happens at school. When kids are screaming, it just kind of sends chills up and down you really. All of these children in my school, their kids. This man was coming to hurt us. I didn't want that to happen. So my, I think my

motherly instinct was probably taking over more than anything else. I just needed to keep everybody safe. Norena hurried the children into the nurse's office. About that time, then the kindergarten teacher came into the office area and she propped herself up against the door and let the children, there were several kindergarten children running in. They were screaming, and they were running away to get away from him. He was directly behind them with his machete raised at them. His arm went through where the opening of the door was before we could get it closed. And in his rage, he pushed that open.

When he did, he came in on me for the second time. He was in a rage at that point. You could see it in his face. His face was very intent. He wanted to kill me. I needed to defend my. my head, all I had was my bare hands. So I put my hands in a criss-cross position. In his strikes, what he was doing instead of getting my head is he was hitting my arm, my left arm and my left

hand. Noreena was bleeding heavily. Another teacher locked the children safely in the office bathroom. I'm not sure why, but he turned away from me at this moment in time. I yelled, help me get him down. And I jumped on his back. I did see his face was right here at my mind. face and it was definitely enraged. I heard a clink and that sound said to me he dropped his weapon. My need was to find what he had dropped. My thinking was that I needed to find it, I needed to get it, and I needed to get it away from him. I have a vision of my attacker. He had moved from where we were at the nurse's desk about three steps back. There was a chair sitting

right outside the health room, bathroom. He did not try to run. He did not move from that chair. Really, the life in him disappeared the moment I jumped on his back. I did feel the energy in him drained totally to the floor. It was a most amazing feeling.

I had never felt that before and never felt that since. I talked to him at this point. I said, relax. Calm down. It's over. The attacker was in a state of mental confusion. Another staff member had hidden his machete during Norena's struggle. When I looked down, we were basically laying in a large puddle of blood.

I saw my injuries. I saw my finger. My small finger on my left hand was laying pretty much detached from my hand. It was only held by a small flap of skin between my small finger and my ring finger. So I knew that that was amputated. I knew that the machete had lodged itself into about half-way. into my left hand. I had a very deep cut to my forearm here. I think I was in a state somewhat of in and out of shock

at this point in time. I had slid down the wall and was sitting on the floor then. In front of me were approximately five kindergarten children. And they were sitting there holding hands, just sitting on the floor looking at me as I'm laying

in front of them. All I kept saying is he's still out there. He's still out there. Police arrived and arrested the attacker. We had 23 children who were chased around their kindergarten classroom, five and six-year-old children, who were chased by a man with a very big knife. I could not at first fathom how they were going to get through this.

When I was on the stretcher and they were just ready to wheel me out of the school, I remember a very strong sense of peace. I remember thinking, we are going to be a... okay, we are going to get through this and we're going to do it together somehow. To get back to my school was one of the hardest things I've ever done in life. I lost 50% of my blood at my school that day. Noreena had extensive reconstructive hand surgery. William Stankawitz was convicted of attempted murder, aggravated assault,

and possession of a weapon on school grounds. His motives were unknown. He was sentenced to 200,000. 64 years in prison. Once I got in there, there's no place I'd rather be. I want to stay there as long as I can. I need to be there for the children, for the adults there. I love my job.

I survived also because of the maternal instinct that a mother has for children, whether they would have been my children or other people's children. Mothers has that instinct to be able to protect them. Thousands of free movies and TV shows. Free. This is the mantra. Free! This is the...

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