Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Know If I Rest That's Going To Be It

Episode Date: November 15, 2025

Teri is jammed into a trash can filled with snow and left to die by her ex-husband. Angela scrambles to escape a gruesome pile up of injured bodies after an escalator malfunctions at a sports... stadium. Ed is jumped by three men with knives in a random attack carried out as part of a gang initiation.Mint - To get the new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to Mintmobile.com/survivedProgressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Ontario, come on down to BetMGM Casino and check out our newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show. Only at BetMGM. Access to the Price is right fortune pick is only available at BetMGM Casino. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,
Starting point is 00:00:21 please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hi, I Survived listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of I Survived as well as the A&E Classic Podcasts, Cold Case Files, City Confidential, and American Justice, are all available ad-free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation Channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now on to the show. This episode contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is at I'm slipping in and out of consciousness. I'm freezing, not knowing what he's going to do next. Real people. I believe that I was looking down to see where I was going to die.
Starting point is 00:01:14 Who faced death. It was inexplicable, the sheer terror. And live to tell how. That sense of regret that you would do things differently if you had another couple of days. a couple of days. This is I Survived. It's January 2004 in Wind Lake, Wisconsin. Terry and her ex-husband, David, share custody of their daughters, aged four and six.
Starting point is 00:01:50 Terry is on her way to David's house to pick up the girls. I drove to his house, and it was very cold that day in snowing. he came to the door and he's like they're not ready yet and then shut the door. Knocked on his door again and he opened it and he said oh the girls are hiding and they want you to come and find him.
Starting point is 00:02:10 Terry had divorced David after enduring three years of domestic violence. You know I thought to myself, I don't want to go in his house but I'm very much a mom I knew my daughters loved playing those hiding games so I thought you know what I'll just go in and find
Starting point is 00:02:26 him and go oh there you are you know, take them and go. David had locked the girls in a bedroom and turned up the TV. After I walked in the house, I remember saying, gee, I wonder where they are. You know, I started walking toward the living room, looking for the girls, and I just remember clunk on the head. I woke up, and I was on the floor, and he was on top of me, and I saw a baseball bat.
Starting point is 00:02:52 I remember seeing his face as he was swinging. He was just so full of hatred and anger and evil. I think as I was pleading and saying, you don't have to pay your child support, you know, he paused for a minute, and then he was just like, oh, your promises don't mean anything, and continue to hit me.
Starting point is 00:03:12 David hit Terry in the head with the baseball bat at least 20 times. He tried strangling me. He tried putting rags and towels and everything in my mouth. He had, during the struggle, I don't know why, taken off my socks and shoes and stuffed my socks in my mouth, when he was trying to suffocate me and he had his hand over me,
Starting point is 00:03:34 I remembered something that I saw in a movie and it said, you know, turn your head away, turn your head to the side, and I kept doing that and he was losing his grip. He was getting angry, and he was getting frustrated that I wasn't going down as easy as he wanted me to. I also couldn't believe that during this time when all this was happening,
Starting point is 00:03:53 my mind was still going. David bound Terry's wrists and covered her face with duct tape. What he did next is he took a garbage can, one of those large rubber-made garbage cans, and started sliding me in it. This is another point where I thought, I can't believe that I'm still thinking,
Starting point is 00:04:12 but I thought to myself, I've been knocked in the head so many times and bleeding from the head. If I go in head first, that's going to be it. Terry twisted her body around and ended up in the trash can feet, first. David took the trash can outside. He was turning it around in his front yard, filling it, packing it with snow. My feet were bare, my legs were bare. I just, you know, had a jacket on. I could feel
Starting point is 00:04:37 the snow all around me. David loaded the trash can onto the back of his truck and covered it with a tarp. It's very cold outside. You know, I just, I just remember what was going through my head. Just a sheer terror of he is really killing me. When I heard his footsteps walk back in the house and heard him shut the door, my first thought was, where are the girls? I can't die. I have to stay alert. I have to help my girls. I thought to myself, I know I have my cell phone in my jacket pocket. I then scratched off the duct tape with my thumbnail off my wrist, reached into my pocket, even though I couldn't see, because my face was all taped up, I could feel the numbers and dialed 911.
Starting point is 00:05:26 911 mobile emergency. Where's your emergency? I can't hear you. Are you having difficulty breathing? 6. 8.4.1. 26841. What's the street?
Starting point is 00:05:48 I knew she wasn't going to be able to understand me because everything was taped up. So I was just, I repeated his address like five times. Terry managed to give David's home address to the operator. David then put the girls into the truck's cab and drove off. A few minutes later, I heard the squads come, but at that time he was moving and they passed us right up because they were coming to his house. I'm in this garbage can, you know,
Starting point is 00:06:18 No clothes on the bottom of me, packed in snow. My head is bleeding, aching. I'm slipping in and out of consciousness. Over the next hour, Terry's body temperature fell rapidly. Pregnant, she was in danger of losing her baby. When I came to, I made a 911 call again. This time, it was in Milwaukee County. I'm freezing, not knowing what he's going to do next,
Starting point is 00:06:46 knowing that I'm dying. The dispatcher at the time thought it was a prank call. She said, did he handcuff you? Said, no, he duct taped me. Well, then how are you making this call? And it was just very frustrating, but I was trying to get out my name and his name, where he lived. And I remember, I think during that 911 call, I ended up blacking out.
Starting point is 00:07:41 Because at the end, I was just breathing on the phone. And I remember her saying, are you going to talk to me? Are you going to talk to me or just breathe heavy? David had beaten Terry so badly that her head had swollen to three times its normal size. I thought, I have to do whatever I can to get him caught. I remember sticking my hand out of the garbage can and trying to wave it around in the back of the truck, hoping somebody would see. And the truck came to a stop, and he got out and he said, one more stunt like that.
Starting point is 00:08:07 I'll get out my 38. Terry knew that David owned guns, so she took his threat seriously. I was terrified of what was happening to me, but I was more terrified of what is going to happen to my kids. It was inexplicable, the sheer terror. Terry's daughters were in the front of the truck, unaware their mom was dying in the back. He either kicked me or hit me in the head with a bat one more time. He had the bat in the truck, too. My cell phone rang, and I still to this day haven't found out who called.
Starting point is 00:08:43 But he heard my cell phone ringing, and he took it. It was just, wow, that was my lifeline, and that's gone now. David got back into the truck and continued driving. I remember pulling the tape down from one of my eyes and seeing the tarp that was on top of me blowing in the wind and just seeing, you know, a road with farms. I had no idea where we were. Terry was sure David was looking for a place to hide. her body. Is it going to take me and dump me in a lake somewhere? He's going to take me and put me
Starting point is 00:09:17 someplace where nobody's ever going to find me. At 4 p.m. after an hour of driving, the truck finally stopped. And the next thing I knew, I feel the garbage can being picked up, taken off the truck. I could hear the girls running and laughing and, you know, giggling. And I didn't want to call it to the girls because I knew, number one, they were so little. They wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. And number two, I didn't want to traumatize them. I could feel myself being rolled somewhere. I could hear that we were in some kind of a garage. David took Terry to a storage garage in Wheeling, Illinois, 55 miles south of his home. I hear a bunch of ruckus. Boxes being slid, things being piled up on top of the garbage candy, put the lid on it this time.
Starting point is 00:10:07 David covered the trash can with two by four timber and cardboard boxes. I was silent all this time because I wanted him to think that I was dead so he wouldn't shoot me. You know, it was then I thought, I am going to die. I am beaten. I am in this frozen tomb. I'm going to die. As soon as I heard a door close, I remember I waited a few minutes to make sure he was gone. Then I started yelling.
Starting point is 00:10:37 David dropped the girls off with a babysitter he had arranged and went to work. Being squished up in the garbage can, I mean, my knees were totally up against it, and I was in the fetal position. I couldn't move. My feet were bare. There was snow that was turning into ice. My head was still bleeding from being beaten so bad. I threw up a couple of times from a concussion. I was completely trapped. It felt like forever. Terry had now been in the freezing trash can for more than 13 hours. There were a couple times when I was just so drained. I thought, you know, I just, I need to rest a little bit.
Starting point is 00:11:19 Then right away I thought, I know I can't. Because I know if I rest, that's going to be it. Overnight, the temperature had dropped to just above zero. My eyes were so swollen. They were swollen shut I still couldn't see. So that was terrifying in itself. And I just remember doing anything at everything I could. to keep myself awake and to try to get out and to scream and yell for help.
Starting point is 00:11:46 I was extremely exhausted. My head was like frozen blood. Terry's core body temperature had dropped to a dangerously low 84 degrees. She was suffering from hypothermia and frostbite. It was such a helpless feeling. I knew that I was freezing. And if I don't keep trying to move as much as I can and keep myself alert, I'm going to freeze today. death. I remember hearing some noise like somebody was coming back in, and I panicked because I thought, oh my gosh, he's coming back. I don't know what he's going to do. Is he going to shoot me now? Because I'm still alive. What's he going to do? Dump the garbage can in the lake? I don't
Starting point is 00:12:25 know. It's 1 p.m. on Sunday. Terry has now been trapped in the icy trash can for 27 hours. When she heard the sounds, she was an hour away from death. I heard somebody say, we're the paramedics. And I just felt such a sense of relief that I'm still alive and somebody's actually here. Following Terry's 911 calls, police searched David's house. They alerted paramedics after finding a business card for the storage garage. Terry was rushed to the intensive care unit at the nearest hospital. The next thing I knew, I woke up. I was in the hospital. I remember a nurse saying, we have to cut your hair so we can staple your head. Is that okay?
Starting point is 00:13:11 And I'm thinking, yeah, my hair. Like, I care about my hair. The first thing I asked when I came to was where are my kids? Terry's girls were safe and being looked after by her sister. Doctors told Terry and her husband, Nick, that their unborn baby had died. When my eyes were open and I first saw Nick, it was just, you know, I can't believe I'm here. you know, and it was sadness of what we had to go through after just being married, sadness after losing our baby together.
Starting point is 00:13:45 The doctors thought at the time that they might have to amputate my legs below my knees and my arms below my elbows. Terry's arms and legs were saved, but all of her toes were removed due to the frostbite. I remember my dad being in the room and saying to the doctor, Do you really have to take her toes? And at that point, I remember saying, Dad, it's just my toes. What's most important is that I'm here
Starting point is 00:14:10 and my kids are safe and my kids are here. My toes don't matter. Terry became pregnant again and gave birth to a healthy boy. David Larson was arrested at his place of work and convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. At the sentencing, he was glaring at me.
Starting point is 00:14:32 But I didn't let it get to me because again, it's, you know what, I'm out here, I'm living my life, and you're going away. You can't hurt me anymore. I survived because I believe God saved me. He got me through this to be here for my kids, to be here to talk about domestic violence, to save other people.
Starting point is 00:14:56 I believe that my love for my children was a huge part of what kept me going, and kept me fighting. I needed to be there for them, and I made it. You know how most holiday gifts eventually vanish into a drawer or lurk in the back of your closet or conveniently stay behind at your cousin's house? Not this one.
Starting point is 00:15:22 MintMobile is offering unlimited premium wireless for just $15 a month, their best deal of the year, and it's one gift you'll actually use every single day. Right now, you can grab it. grab a three, six, or 12-month unlimited plan for $15 a month. Every Mint plan includes high-speed data and unlimited talk and text, all on the nation's largest 5G network. And if you love your current phone and number, keep them.
Starting point is 00:15:45 Mint makes it easy to bring both along. No contracts, no nonsense, just reliable wireless that actually feels good to pay for. So this holiday season, skip the gifts you'll never touch again and treat yourself, or someone you actually like to Mint Mobile. Personally, I'm amazed at how easy Mint makes it to switch. It's nice not having to think about your phone plan, and that's probably the best present someone will get all year. Don't get them socks.
Starting point is 00:16:08 Get them premium wireless for $15 per month. Shop Mint Unlimited Plans at Mintmobile.com slash survived. That's mintmobile.com slash survived. Limited time offer, upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, and $180 for 12-month plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra, initial plan term only, greater than 35 gigabytes, may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies.
Starting point is 00:16:35 Seamintmobile.com. It's July 2003 in Denver, Colorado. Angela is at a 4th of July baseball game with her family. The Colorado Rockies are playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. Angela and her family are exiting the park after the game. We let the initial crowd begin to go so that we could kind of stay together as a family. Since we were on the top floor, the only escalator that you can use is a three-story escalator.
Starting point is 00:17:06 It does not have any stops. It's just one really long escalator. It's kind of almost scary when you're looking at it because it's just so massive, but you trust that everything's going to work okay. When it was our turn to go, there wasn't too many more people left up above, and we began the descent down. The escalator was carrying 100 people. There was like a click noise and everybody, you know, kind of just looked around at each other.
Starting point is 00:17:37 Then there was a cranking noise almost like you were winding up a clock. And then I heard kind of a snap sound like a band. The escalator started to speed up. And what I believe to be happening was that we were all going to get shot off of the escalator because it was moving so fast. The escalator accelerated to more than 20 months. miles per hour. I remember my hair was blowing. That's how quickly we were going.
Starting point is 00:18:05 I just remember thinking we're going to crash. We're going to fall off of this because we are going so fast. People started screaming for people at the bottom of the steps to run off of the escalator so that the rest of us could also run when we got down to the bottom. In a rush to get off the escalator, people fell, creating a pile of bodies. I remember trying to climb. off of the side, but the escalator was going way too fast
Starting point is 00:18:34 to even try to jump off. People's clothing and their hair was getting stuck in the escalator so that they couldn't move. And it kind of looked like a landslide of people just laying there. Angela and her family of six
Starting point is 00:18:50 were seconds away from crashing into the pile of bodies. I believe that I was looking down to see where I was going to die. At the time When the escalator was falling, I was able to see all of my family members and knowing that we were going to be going into what looked like a giant meat grinder. I was like, all right, well, at least if we all die, then we all die together, and none of us
Starting point is 00:19:16 have to get left behind. Smoke began pouring from the escalator as the rubber handrails burned. I could smell burning flesh because the sides of the escalator were so hot. there was just blood everywhere covering the people, kind of spraying up when some new victim got caught by the escalator. As I reached the bottom, I hit into the big massive pile and it covered my whole body. As Angela sunk deeper into the pile of bodies, she was in danger of suffocating. The escalator was still out of control as people in the crowd rushed to help. When a body was taken out of the escalator by a rescuer
Starting point is 00:19:58 or they were able to de-wedge themselves, then somebody else would take their place. The reason people were getting sucked under is that you were standing on the step, and then when the step went flat, you kind of slipped from all the people's blood and hair and just their body parts, so I knew that it wasn't good down where they were,
Starting point is 00:20:20 and I began to start taking their place. Angela was slipping closer to the escalator's moving teeth. I remember looking for all of my family members, but the pile of people was so massive that you couldn't really tell who was who. You weren't even sure what part was yours. And the only person that I knew was my dad because he was holding on to me and holding me up. I did see my sister climb off, so I knew that she had gotten off. Angela did not know if her mom, grandmother, or brother were still alive.
Starting point is 00:20:53 My leg was wedged between bodies and the metal teeth of the escalator repeatedly just kept digging into my leg. It would take a piece and then go flat and recycle itself and then take another piece. It was almost like the escalator was biting you. It was like it was alive. At this point, my whole body just ached from the people hitting into me. I knew that my leg was cut. My leg was hurting really bad. And I turned around to look for my dad and I said,
Starting point is 00:21:24 Dad, I'm getting sucked under. I just imagined the escalator just opening up and just sucking us all under. But I remember reaching out to my right. And there was a young man that reached over and grabbed me with both arms and was trying to pull me. And I was saying to him, I'm stuck, I'm stuck. My leg is stuck in the teeth.
Starting point is 00:21:46 And then all of a sudden I got like a really warm sensation over my whole body, and it felt like something had snapped in my lower leg. Angela was terrified her left leg had been torn off by the escalator. At this point, I thought that my leg had been detached because there was no more pain after that. I kind of felt limp. I felt very weak. And so I told the man, I said, just keep pulling. You know, please get me off of this. And finally, he was able to pull me free. Despite bleeding heavily, Angela couldn't bring herself to look at her leg. I didn't know what was wrong, but I did think that I was missing some body parts.
Starting point is 00:22:28 And he laid me down, and he was asking, are you all right? And I said, where's my family? Where's my dad? I thought that my dad had probably taken my place on the escalator. Eventually, I saw my dad kind of crawl out of the pile, and he came towards me, but he didn't look very good. was very pale. Angela had no idea what had happened to her mom and grandmother. Then I heard my name through the crowd, and I looked to my left, and it was my sister,
Starting point is 00:22:58 my little brother, and I could tell that she was bleeding, and she was just trying to hold her leg, and my little brother was staring at me and staring at my leg, and he began saying, oh, she's going to die, and so at this point I knew that there was probably something more serious, but I couldn't see it because nobody was letting me look. I remember I did begin to cry because I thought my little brother's going to watch his older sister die. I was looking all throughout the crowd and I couldn't see anybody but my dad and my sister and brother.
Starting point is 00:23:31 It didn't feel like this was actually happening to our family because how can an escalator just suddenly speed up and cause all of this damage? Angela was losing blood rapidly, but still has not seen her injured leg. Right then a woman came with a big Rockies towel and wrapped my leg up. And I asked to see my leg and she said, no, you don't want to see it right now. Emergency medical technicians were now on the scene. They were assessing, you know, who was going to go where depending on their injuries. And I knew that we were probably going to get split up.
Starting point is 00:24:05 So I just kept my hand outreach to my sister and brother. I knew my dad was on my right side. I knew my dad was right there. I believe that he saw my leg and he just kept kind of coming in and out of consciousness and I was really afraid that you know he was hurt because he wasn't moving
Starting point is 00:24:22 Angela's dad was close to passing out and was bleeding heavily from deep cuts in his back there were a lot of people on the scene and when they first came to me they started taking you know blood pressure and all that EMTs recorded Angela's vital signs I was thinking you know what is he riding
Starting point is 00:24:42 Like, is she condemned to die? Like, what, you know, what are you doing? They told me to lay down, so I wasn't going to see it. But I, of course, sat up because I wanted to see what was going on. And I saw my leg, and I looked at it, and, you know, I could see bone, and I could see muscle and everything. That's whenever I really went into shock was when I saw my leg. The escalator was still speeding out of control.
Starting point is 00:25:07 It sounded like the whole thing was just going to explode. I just pictured, you know, bowl. just shooting from it sounded like parts were getting loose because of how quick the stairs were moving. It smelled really bad and I believe somebody in the crowd even shout you know it's gonna explode and I was laying very close to the escalator. The woman assisting Angela was still by her side. Fear just came over both of us thinking all right we may have made this but now this escalator's gonna explode so we've already seen our deaths we've conquered it and now
Starting point is 00:25:41 now we're going to die again. It smelled really bad, and I believe somebody in the crowd even shout, you know, it's going to explode. And I was laying very close to the escalator. It looked like a giant meat grinder. At this point, they had gotten it to stop, but it was just so massive and the walls, everything was just covered in blood. Everything was kind of mangled.
Starting point is 00:26:05 And I remember thinking to myself, oh, I bet parts of me are over there. It seemed like just such a horrible, chaotic event. People were holding other people. People were trying to find their family members. Angela and her dad were put into an ambulance and rushed to the hospital. My leg at this point was still wrapped up. And one of the EMT said to the other, don't open this right now because we can't deal with it. In surgery, Angela was terrified the doctors were going to amputate her left leg.
Starting point is 00:26:34 They started washing it off. And one of them said, you know, we might have to. take it? And I was like, no, you're not going to take it. And then he looked and he was like, oh, wait, there it is. The doctors had found a vital vein that allowed them to save Angela's leg. And one of the doctors grabbed one side of the skin and then grabbed the other side and goes, oh, it fits back together. He's like, you're really lucky. Angela had 38 stitches in her leg and was unsure if she would walk again. Her mom and grandmother survived, but sustained serious injuries. Angela's dad and sister had major cuts and burns to their bodies.
Starting point is 00:27:14 When my dad lifted up his shirt, it looked like he had laid down on a grill. There were teeth marks from the actual escalator that were in his back that looked like it had just burned itself into him. I know that everybody in our family still has nightmares. Every time you see an escalator, you think about it. It still takes me a while to get on a while. an escalator and I really watch where I am. Of the 100 people on the escalator, 23 were badly injured in the accident. The injuries were similar to those of a driver who had crashed at 35 miles per hour without a seatbelt. Investigators found that two vital components controlling
Starting point is 00:27:57 the escalator's speed had failed. The escalator firm reached an undisclosed settlement with all of the accident victims. Anytime I hear a noise that kind of resent, what the escalator sounded like, I kind of look around waiting for that escalator to come back. I believe that our family, and I only survived this accident because of people helping one another. It really seemed like the general public cared about others, and I think in times of crisis, we all come together. I Survived is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds.
Starting point is 00:28:49 Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. It's November 1995 in New York City, New York. Ed runs a bar in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, and has just closed up for the night. It was about 2 a.m. and I had just walked out of my bar, but because this was the night, two nights before Thanksgiving, it was very dead. And so there was really nobody on the street. But I wasn't afraid at all. I knew the owners of the restaurants and the bars.
Starting point is 00:29:38 in the neighborhood. Ed was carrying two cups of coffee to have with his girlfriend. She was working at a nearby bakery. And as I walked onto the block, these three kids get up and start to walk towards me. I felt like they were a little thuggish. I didn't have any sense of danger. But I didn't want to walk between them. So I put my back to the wall and I held the cups like this to let them pass by. Ed was unaware the three men were armed with knives. And they jumped on me and just started to stab me as many times as they could. There was a guy on the left, a guy right in front of me, and a guy on my right. And the guy on the right had a knife with a 10-inch blade. The man with a 10-inch blade lunged at Ed's neck. To protect himself, Ed used his
Starting point is 00:30:29 college boxing training. I dropped the coffee and I put both my hands up like this. When I put my hands up, he sunk that knife in, but he went in under my elbow. Ed was stabbed in the abdomen. And he pulled it out, and I remember hearing like a, I saw the gleam of the blade and it had blood all over it. And then I just knew that I was in big trouble. I had put my hands up in a defensive boxing posture, and it went in underneath my elbow, just above my belt. which turned out to have been a very good thing. The knife narrowly missed adds liver and kidneys.
Starting point is 00:31:17 The first big stab got just my intestines, and then the first couple of inches of the blade went up and cut the very large vein that returns all your blood to your heart, called the inferior vina cava. Bleeding heavily, as intestines have been slit, and both of his lungs have. collapsed. The attacker with the 10-inch knife then went for Ed's throat. But again, I had my hands up, and he couldn't go for the throat, so he just plunged it
Starting point is 00:31:47 into my neck right here, and it went all the way in. And I look, and he pulls the knife out, and I see sliding out of my neck, this covered in blood, this knife comes out, and then I twist it, and the other guy was stabbing me up my back. The guy in the middle, for whatever reason, just couldn't, hadn't quite gotten a chance to stick me yet. And my boxing training came, and I pulled back with one straight right punch as hard as I could throw it. And I hit him right in the face, and he went down. I started to scream.
Starting point is 00:32:22 And my screaming, combined with the fact that their middle guy fell, made them run away. So I start to run and it feels very heavy. And I go down to my hands and knees. At this point, my lungs have filled up and it just feels as if I have an incredible weight pushing down and I'm suffocating, I'm literally drowning in my own blood. My screaming combined with the fact that their middle guy fell, made them run away. One of the men then returned to see if Ed was dead. He stops next to me and tries to take my wallet
Starting point is 00:33:07 and I grabbed onto his leg and he started to kick me and stomp on me and I was screaming then and so then he took off. 90% of Ed's lungs had filled with blood and he was close to passing out. I was screaming in a way that made the little old ladies that lived upstairs
Starting point is 00:33:29 in the apartments on Thompson Street call 911. Fifteen calls made to 911 following Ed's screams. I rolled over onto my back, and everyone's gathered around me, and I'm trying to tell them that I've been stabbed, but I started to feel very, just felt confused. Minutes later, an ambulance arrived. The ambulance guy started cutting my clothes off, and he stuck a big needle in my neck, and he He lifted my arm up, and he cut me open, and he shoved a tube in, started to drain the blood.
Starting point is 00:34:09 And then he lifted my other arm up, and he shoved another tube in, and started to drain the blood onto the sidewalk. And they were talking to me, and they were saying, you've got to hang in there, you've got to hang in there. And we got in the ambulance, and I just had this feeling like, thanks, guys. You know, I appreciate your effort, but I just don't have a sense that it's really going work out for me. I said, there's no way they're going to be able to save me. I don't have that much blood to spare, and I'm sure this is it. Ed thought he had seconds left to live.
Starting point is 00:34:45 You just think, oh boy, would have done things a little differently, but it's too late. I went into surgery, and I just remember them clamping the mask on me, and I was conscious the whole time. the nurse said something like he has a pulse, but he has no blood pressure. And the surgeon then looks at the anesthesiologist, and he's counting down for me to go out. And I just remember the surgeon saying, we don't have time. Ed's condition was deteriorating rapidly from extensive bleeding. And then they opened me up from my sternum all the way down to below my belt line. And then they operated on me.
Starting point is 00:35:31 the entire night and they took out about a dozen feet of my intestines and they had to find every puncture and nick and cut and to stitch it up they had to give me some it was essentially two complete blood transfusions by the time they were able to stop all bleeding had survived the operation but his life was still in danger then nobody expected me to live because of the risk of infection and those sort of injuries. It's just, you know, my intestines were cut open inside me. So they had to disinfect my entire abdominal cavity and pack everything back in.
Starting point is 00:36:13 They were so sure that I was going to die, that they actually gave the case to the homicide unit. I hung in there. And then the surgeon came to see me. He said that he's done a lot of surgeries where his hands are in there and he's working. And he feels something let go. And then shortly after that, the heart stops
Starting point is 00:36:41 or whatever happens. And he said, you know, you just hung in there for me to get my work done. So it worked out, it was great. And I was very grateful. The men were caught that night after a witness saw them run into a subway station. The youngest attacker was 16 years old.
Starting point is 00:37:04 I found out later from the detectives that these kids had come in from Brooklyn. I just remember being shocked at their age and that they couldn't have had any idea of what they were doing. Police told Ed the attack had been part of a Latin King's gang initiation. They didn't want to kill an old lady. and they didn't want to kill a young girl, they didn't want to kill an old man, they were looking for somebody like me. That was their task.
Starting point is 00:37:38 They were to kill somebody and the guys who were the lookouts were higher up in the gang and they were going to witness it. And then that would be their credibility. It took Ed five years to fully recover. When I started to get physically better, I had a very, very hard time emotionally,
Starting point is 00:37:58 feeling like I was going to be a task. walking down the street. It would paralyze me. Ed was given the chance to confront his attackers in court. I actually was hoping to make a difference. I tried to say, you're going to prison. But one day you're going to get out.
Starting point is 00:38:16 You don't have to be who you are now. You know, I didn't die. So that means you're going to get out of prison. You're only going in for 15 is the max. If I died, you would have to be. have gotten 25 years to life. You're getting out 10 years early because I didn't die. You tried to kill me and I didn't die. And I said to each one of them, I said, you owe me this. And I want you to remember today and I want you to do something to be better.
Starting point is 00:38:48 Kayenne Mullings, 16, was sentenced to a maximum of eight years in prison for attempted murder. Eliezer Rodriguez, 19, was sentenced to a maximum six years in prison for attempted murder. Samuel Vasquez, 18, was sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in prison for attempted murder. I really think I survived because I was very, very lucky. And my surgeon said to me that I had about it less than a 2% chance of living. And I was strong and healthy. and I did not want to die. This November, action is free on Pluto TV.
Starting point is 00:39:37 Go on the run with Jack Reacher. Every suspect was a train killer. Then buckle up for drive, World War Z. Every human being we save is one of less fights. And Charlie's Angels. Damn, I hate to fly. Launch into sci-fi adventure with the fifth element and laugh through the mayhem in Tropic Thunder.
Starting point is 00:39:55 What is going on here? All the thrills, all for free. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.