How do you ever get over someone trying to kill you? These people share their stories about how they survived an attack on their life.
1. The Walk Home
When I had turned 18 I was out with a couple of friends and we decided to walk to a local shop to pick up some food before heading back to my friend’s house to stay the night and play some Halo. On our way back to my friends house we were walking along a road which we had walked countless amounts of times and were only a couple of minutes from reaching his house. I should note at this point I had offered to carry my friend’s bag with several cans of spray paint in it as he was complaining of getting a back ache.
I remember getting a distinct feeling of uneasiness and one of my friends shouting ‘RUN!’. It was at this point that I looked over my shoulder to see what we were running from, saw two men and a dog running towards us from behind (not the greatest idea I’ve ever had) and began to run myself. I had only gotten to run for a few paces and felt a blow to the back of the head with something that made a wooden sound when it connected.
I kept trying to move as one of the two men continued to hit me with what I can only assume was a small bat or broken pool cue, and saw the other man run past me after my two friends who had managed to get a head start. After taking a good few blows to the head and shoulders I fell on the ground and after a couple of swift kicks the guy ran off after the dog they had with them. I was still conscious at this point and completely pumped with adrenalin, so I jumped to my feet thinking ‘I’m still conscious, where the hell are my friends?’ and ran a few meters up the road to a gateway at the back of a school and saw my best friend lying face down on the ground. It didn’t register for a couple of seconds but the other man who had chased my two friends (one of whom got over a fence and into the aforementioned school to safety) was standing with his face covered just staring coldly at me. He then moved towards me and hit me hard in the chest (with what i thought was a bottle in an attempt to break my ribs) and grabbed me with his other hand to pull me closer. He started reaching round me and hitting me in the back but hitting my friend’s bag (which had the tins of spray paint) and I remember hearing a hissing sound and smelling paint. The guy then took off after his friend and the dog and disappeared down the street.
I looked up to see they were gone and instantly went to help my friend on the ground. He was lying there making wheezing and gasping noises and I could see from the way he was lying half on/half off the kerbstone that there was blood coming from his eyes and his glasses were broken. I knew at that point that things were not good and I got the strangest urge to pull his sweater and t-shirt up to check for injuries (I still don’t know to this day what made me do it) and saw puncture holes in his back. It then dawned on me that he had been stabbed and he needed medical attention. I rolled him over into the recovery position and screamed for my other friend to come out of hiding and call an ambulance.
There was an off-duty firefighter who was walking home from a local bar at this time and ran over to help as he was first aid trained. I let him take over and he called one of his friends who was a local doctor to come round and help whilst the ambulance came. I then threw off my friend’s bag, my sweater and t-shirt into a pile on the ground and saw a puncture hole in my chest just at the bottom of my ribs and blood pouring out. (continued…)
I wrapped my tshirt around me to soak up the blood as the emergency services arrived. I was bundled into an ambulance as the paramedics took my friend to hospital.
My friend died in hospital as one of the knife wounds had severed his aorta and he had bled out inside. I discharged myself the next morning with a few stitches and spent the next five years trying to mentally recover from the event. Reflecting back on the events, I realized if I had not taken my friend’s bag then he would have been wearing it when attacked and he would not have taken the multiple stab wounds which killed him. This is one thing that has weighed heavily on my mind ever since and I have lost the best friend I ever had.
My friend was 15 at the time and this happened in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It took 5 years for police to bring them to court to be tried for it. In those 5 years I did numerous interviews, lineups and even the first dog lineup in Northern Ireland. They never admitted guilt or even said anything about the crime but chose to go with a wall of silence. There was never any forensic evidence found but the key piece of evidence came to light when the cops got hold of security camera footage from the entrance/elevator area of the apartment block which the two guys lived in. They disregarded the timestamps on the video (because they were incorrect) and saw the two guys get in the lift and leave the building together. The footage then showed them both returning separately but the guy who had the knife came in to the building walking backwards and covering his face before taking the stairs where there were no other cameras. The cops did a walk through of the route they thought the guys took that night and the timings matched almost perfectly.
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3. Lost My Senses
When I was eight, my father shot me in my sleep, shot and killed my brother in his sleep, and committed suicide. I lost all of my sight, my left eye, and my sense of smell. I survived the shot because the bullet entered from my right temple and exited out my left, instead of enter from the back of my head or my forehead. The bullet lodged into my left hand because my head was resting on my hand when I was sleeping.
4. Pool Party
When I was a kid, my neighbors were this sweet old couple, and occasionally their grandkids- five boys- would come to visit. The oldest, Liam, was my age and had severe behavioural problems. All his younger brothers were terrified of him, and I hated his guts, but I still had to hang out with him.
One time, we were playing in an inflatable pool in my backyard, Liam, my sister and I being the oldest ones there- no adults were around. Well, Liam wouldn’t stop picking on his poor brothers, so I pantsed him. Everyone laughed. He did not take it well. When I turned around, he ran up behind me and shoved my head underwater and held me under for about two minutes while I struggled. I could see his brothers’ legs around me but none of them moved, that’s how petrified they were of him. I thought it was over. I was starting to black out when I began to hear a SWOOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH noise and then suddenly I was free, flat on my back and coughing up water. My sister had waded over as fast as she could and punched him in the face so hard she broke his nose.
5. Saved My Life
I was stabbed in the stomach during a bar fight and I passed out from blood loss. When I came to I was in the hospital, the surgeon who patched me up let me know that had I not been stabbed I could have died from my appendix bursting. Apparently without realizing it, my appendix was perforated (and not related to the stab wound). What I thought was just some cramps was actually a life threatening time bomb, and thanks to being almost stabbed to death I got to live.
6. Spring Break!
Driving through rural Oregon with a couple of buddies on Spring Break, on a stretch of highway with one lane in each direction, we were stuck in a line of cars behind a woman who was driving a little slowly. We hit a stretch where passing was allowed so I moved over and sped up so I could get around her. She sped up too. I was driving a Civic with three big guys in the car so I couldn’t beat her.
I slowed back down to get back behind her. She slowed down too. She wasn’t going to let me back in. The passing lane was coming to an end and I was starting to get a little nervous. I tried to catch her eye to indicate that she had to let me in and realized she was staring at me, smiling. I looked forward and realized a semi was coming straight towards me. I jerked left, onto the shoulder of the oncoming lane, and missed the semi by a few feet. The cars behind the psycho had seen the whole thing and let me in between them, and she exited shortly after trying to kill me. I only drive fast cars now and when I pass people I try to do it before they notice I’m doing it.
7. Pizza Delivery
I delivered a pizza to a house just outside of the city. On the way back, I stopped to help a car that pulled over in front of me with their hazard lights on. I pulled up beside them and thought it was weird that nobody rolled down a window or made any kind of contact with me for around 15 seconds. The passenger then jumped out of his side of the car yelling that they needed help as he made his way toward my car. I thought something was weird about this. As I started to pull away before he could get to my passenger door, he began shooting at me. I ducked my head after the first shot entered through the back window and embedded in my passenger seat headrest.
Another shot entered through the rear window, while the other 3 only hit the outside metal parts of my car, he missed all together with another shot. Turns out it was a plot to rob me, the pizza was ordered and the guys were stationed down the road to intercept me. They knew who I was and they knew that I would be able to recognize them, as I had delivered a few orders to them before. The guy wasn’t wearing anything to cover his identity, which leads me to believe that he would have shot and killed me if he would have made it inside my car. By the next morning, the had arrested all of them. The shooter was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He later appealed that sentencing because there was a word wrong in the jury instructions, he won the appeal and ended up being sentenced to 10 years, and was released November of 2010 after 5 years. The remaining 5 years were to be served as parole/probation. He was arrested twice for parole/probation violation when he was only a couple months away from total freedom. I laughed.
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8. Rear Ended
I was riding my bike home one night and was stopped at a light in the bike lane. BAM! A pickup truck hits me from the back side; he’d swerved into the bike lane while slowing for the light. Luckily he wasn’t going very fast and only knocked me over. I started yelling at him through his open windows but he pretended to ignore me, so I leaned in through the window to get his attention. He tried to punch me but I pulled back. Then he started to get out of the car to come fight me but changed his mind. At that point I decided to get his license plate number so I walked out into the crosswalk to get a look. When he saw me he gunned the truck and swerved to try to run me over. Then he continued on through the red light. Cops found him near his home, got him for drunk driving and assault with a deadly weapon. He just got sentenced to 7 years in state prison.
9. Couch Surfer
I lived in this duplex years ago with one of my coworkers. Our place of employment hired this new guy who clearly had some issues, but seemed like he was really trying. The new guy, Shawn, had been in and out of rehab and halfway houses for drug charges, but he was living in his brother’s garage and picking up as many shifts at work as he could to try and earn enough money to get his own place. Winter came around, and Shawn was living in this unheated, uninsulated garage. My coworker/roommate talked about it and decided to invite him to stay on our couch under the condition that he stay clean and he keep saving for a new place. Shawn gratefully accepted, moved in, and things went well for several months. But then Shawn started slipping, missing shifts at work, disappearing for days on end, all while becoming much more aggressive. Our suspicions were confirmed when one day my roommate walked in on Shawn smoking meth on the living room floor. We promptly told Shawn to gather his things and move out. A few weeks later, at about 1am I awake to someone pounding on the front door. I groggily get up and go answer it, and there is Shawn, high as a kite and screaming.
I quickly latched the outside wooden screen door, and tried to talk Shawn into leaving before I called the cops. After a few minutes without making any headway, I tell Shawn I am going to call the police, and start shutting the inside door. Shawn bursts through the wooden screen door like it isn’t even there, which knocks me backwards over the arm of the couch. I land on the seating portion of the couch on my back, and Shawn is on top of me, with both hands around my throat. I swung and hit him in the head and face as hard as I could, but he was a big guy and was so high that it didn’t faze him. If anything, it tightened his grip around my throat.
I quickly realized that I couldn’t get him off me, so I kind of quit struggling and resigned myself to my fate. My vision started to get blurry around the edges and sounds started getting muffled. At first I felt sad that I wouldn’t get to see my family again, but then I just started to feel at peace as I began slipping away. Finally I closed my eyes for what I thought would be the last time in my life. (continued…)
Suddenly I was able to draw a huge breath, and the weight of Shawn’s body was no longer pinning me down. I rolled off the couch gasping for air, and when I gained enough breath, I looked up to see my roommate, I sh-t you not, beating Shawn around the head and face with a frying pan. She had heard the commotion and ran into the living room to see Shawn choking me the death, so she grabbed a frying pan off the drying rack in the kitchen and started to hit him as hard as she could. We were eventually able to push Shawn outside, where he sat on a bench on my porch crying until the police arrived.
10. Fateful Phone Call
Not me but my cousin… He was waiting for a train in a not very nice area. Young kid about 16-17 walks up to him and asks if he can use my cousins phone quick to call his mom. Cousin says sure and hands him the phone. After about 3 seconds it was obvious the kid didn’t need it to call his mother. He then says ‘this is mine now’ and starts to walk away. Cousin attacked the kid and started to fight for the phone. Cousin tackles the kid and they start rolling around fighting. My told cousin told me he remembered thinking ‘holy sh-t this kid hits hard’. Turns out the kid was stabbing him as they were wrestling. 9 stabs wounds to the head neck upper back area later my cousin almost bleeds out on the train platform. Someone calls 911 ambulance comes and saves him. The phone and kid were both found by police.
11. Killer Cousin
Had a cousin of mine, who my aunt and uncle adopted from drug addicts, chase me around his house with a kitchen knife trying to slit my throat. His dad tackled and subdued him. I was around 12 or 13 at the time and I guess he was 16 or so. I just remember hyperventilating and the absolute panic i felt while my aunt drove me home. He later that year beat and strangled to death an 8 year old in a construction site. He ended up confessing sometime later after the guilt got to him. He got out of prison this year and sent me a facebook friend request… gonna pass on that, thanks.
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12. Hotel Brawl
This happened actually about two months ago. I was at my friends wedding and when it was over, my friends and I decided to go have a couple drinks at the bar in the hotel. A couple that was in their late 30s, who were family friends of the bride and groom, asked to tag along. Well I’m standing outside of the hotel with my wife, my best friends wife, that couple, and the woman’s 26 year old brother and we’re waiting for my best friend to come out of the bathroom. The the guy starts saying he wants to leave now but I say we’re waiting for my friend to which he starts mouthing of saying my brother (who recently died) would be disappointed in me and such. I knew he was drunk so I took no offence to it which made him more mad. Mad enough to start pushing me, so I push him off of me and he stumbles into his wife and knocks her down. Then the 26 year old hits me in the face with a glass mug from the wedding and knocks me out and the three then proceed to stomp me out and jump me. The man then picks up a huge planter pot and smashes it on my head. Luckily he was so drunk that he stumbled when he picked it up and the pot missed my head by about 2 inches and I walked away with only a big gash on my forehead from the mug. Both are on trial for attempted murder now.
12. Wrong Crowd
A guy that worked at my school in the campus cafe used to hang out with the same crowd as me in college. He was an older guy that liked to hook up with the freshman on campus because they were young and naive. A lot of people in our group of friends were pairing up and I was still not over my ex. Never led the dude on in the slightest. A few different guys in our group had asked me out and I’d turned them all down, but had a one night stand with a mutual friend, but made it clear that’s all it was. He asked me out (being the last in our group of ‘friends’ to do so) and I turned him down, giving him the same reasons I gave the rest of them. After numerous phone calls of him trying to get me to say yes, he showed up at my door with a mutual friend (not the guy I slept with, but someone I had trusted). I let them in, being stupid and 18. We hung out for a bit and our friend made an excuse to leave, saying he’d come back. This guy started grilling me about why I wouldn’t go out with him, that I owed it to him since I’d slept with our other friend and it wasn’t fair that I wouldn’t sleep with him. He went on to explain that our mutual male friends had all placed bets on who would finally get to date me since I was the youngest in our group and that he thought it was disrespectful that I would send him home without the opportunity to at least f–k me.
It escalated into me running to my room trying to lock myself in to call the cops, but he burst and pinned me to my bed. (continued…)
screaming in my face pretty much incoherent at this point. Not sure how long that lasted, but I managed to get away, don’t even remember how, and got into the bathroom, but not before he slammed my head into my headboard repeatedly, busting open a large portion of my face and hurting my neck really badly. I lost my phone in the scuffle. Our friend came back at some point while I was locked in the bathroom and found him kicking the door and yelling for me to let him in. Friend got him to leave. When I reported it the school, they took action, but let him keep his job, just told him to leave me alone. The guys in our group of friends took to calling me ‘fat’ (I was 5’3 and 110lbs at the time) and oinking at me in the hallways, and one even accused me of being a b–ch for reporting it because the guy could have lost his job and he was living paycheck to paycheck so it would have been hard for him. Hard. For. Him. I had to get f–king stitches and have permanent nerve damage in my neck. I’m married now and I flinch sometimes when my husband touches me unexpectedly. But it could have been hard for him.
13. High School Drama
I’m not sure if this counts exactly since the person wasn’t trying to specifically kill me… but when I used to work at Starbucks, a guy was trying to kill his ex girlfriend by causing a gas leak at our location with all of us still working there. Our shift supervisor smelled the gas and had us evacuate while calling the fire department. I remember thinking ‘wow, I could have died over some stupid high school drama’. Made me realize that every time something bad happens to me, I shouldn’t overreact to the point where it inconveniences others like I’m the only person with problems to deal with. Don’t want to be like that guy.
14. Sibling Rivalry
My older sister had issues. She still has them now but she also lives 500 miles away and doesn’t talk to me. When I was like 11 and she was 13 we shared a room. She had run away a few times by then and generally kept saying she was going to do it to get stuff from our grandma. So we go to bed. I was coming down with a head cold so had general nose problems. She kept yelling at me and throwing stuff after i fell asleep telling me to stop snoring. This happened a few times and i kept telling her I couldn’t not snore so she would have to deal with it. One time i doze off and I wake up with her straddling my body with my arms pinned to my sides with her hands around my throat. I started making as much noise as possible and knocked her off of when. Then my mom walks in, and proceeds to yell at me for making noise. I tell her what happens and she sat down with my older sister telling her that she isn’t allowed to do that, and she will go to jail, and she is so lucky my mom is so nice. Meanwhile I’m sitting on the edge of my bed hardly breathing without pain. Then I started having more trouble breathing. My mom just looked at me and told me to stop being dramatic because my older sister was already getting in trouble. I was probably having my first anxiety attack. Also not the first or last time she tried to kill me.
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15. King Of The Castle
I have this mate from the States, older gent, owns a company that goes around putting change in vending machines or whatever. His childhood friend co-owned the company with him, things were apparently really good. As it would appear, his friend was jealous, greedy, and wanted to own the company all by his lonesome.
The ‘friend’ calls up my mate, asks him to help in fiddling with his car. Now my mate is a very kind guy, goes above and beyond to help a brother, gets over to his house with his toolkit and smile on his face as I can imagine although the devious little sh-t rigged the car up so the exhaust would pour into the car and suffocate him. The bloke knocks him out cold, chucks him in the car with it on and goes to watch telly or something. Old mate wakes up, squirms out of the car and escapes. His mate eventually gets up to check out his dirty deed and sees him disappeared, and proceeds to send him a text a long the lines of ‘you should be asleep in the car…’. By this time he has already made it to the police station. What’s freakier is, this obvious attempt at homecide re-jogged his memory of a month of two prior where he went to help his buddy mow his lawn where a ‘freak accident’ cause a large piece of shrapnel to slice his cheek – coincidence? Who knows. Needless to say, my mate owns the entire company now.
16. Not My Baby
When I was a newborn my biological father tried to kill me by choking me. It happened in my grandmothers kitchen and my mom bopped him over the head wth a frying pan and stabbed him with one of those hot dog pokers you use on the grill. My mom was arrested but released for the stabbing. He started to stalk her after she left him and my step-dad actually shot him when he broke into our house a few years later. He’s now living in LA on Skid Row so I don’t see him anymore, actually haven’t seen him since I was a toddler. Oh and forgot to add, he tried to kill me because he thought I was not his child, he thought my mom cheated on him.
17. Young Love
When I was 17, I had a 22-year-old boyfriend who I dated near the time I finished my secondary school education. He was genuinely amazing and I thought he was perfect as every naive young girl does, my friends warned me saying he was manipulative and abusive but I brushed it off assuming they were jealous. But I started noticing things, and I wouldn’t give him his way, we started fighting more and more.
One night we were relaxing and watching my favorite movie in my room (Robots I think it was called), anyway my boyfriend starts trying to pressure me into giving him oral. I tried pulling away but he was holding my had down into his lap, that’s when I started shouting and screaming. He grabbed my neck and threw me to the floor and began kicking me, at this point I was completely dazed and in shock so I couldn’t defend myself. After what seemed like ages I finally screamed stop, he grabbed my hair and dragged me to my balcony where he tried shoving me over the guard rail. I was fighting but I’m really small so I don’t have much strength. Suddenly something grabs me and at the same time I see my boyfriend fly headfirst over the rails. Turns out my neighbor got home early and noticed the situation unfold, he ran broke through the front door and upstairs to my room, then tossed my boyfriend over the rails and grabbed me stop me falling. Police and ambulance were called, boyfriend was taken to hospital and charged with assault and attempted GBH. Luckily my family has cameras on the balconies and porch to catch thieves so they caught almost everything that occurred. My neighbor didn’t get charged as he acted in my defence. That was about 3 years ago, neighbor and I are close friends and boyfriend is still in prison. I realize I really should call him my ex but it seems odd in the story.
18. Vacation Nighmare
Someone in the Bahamas mugged me and then tried to stab me after I handed over my wallet and phone. I swatted at his hand with the goodie bag I had from the party and booked it while he tried to pull the knife out. I assume it must have gotten stuck.
Anyways, in my terror, I leapt down a block of stairs I really didn’t think I’d clear. Second later I hear skidding shoes on concrete, a swear and a crack. I look over my shoulder and he’s sprawled on the ground, probably unconscious. I give this cackling laugh and keep running until I get somewhere that’s got a phone and call the police. They show up like half an hour later, go find the guy who’s still unconscious, with a little pool of blood around his head and basically just piss themselves laughing at this guy’s incompetence. I kinda joined in, but holy sh-t that could have been me, with extra knife in my back. Got my wallet and phone back eventually, with the cash missing.
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21. Bad Boyfriend
I dated the quarterback in high school. My parents hated him, but their hatred fueled me to overlook red flags and really push to make things work….to prove them wrong. I was 17. Anyway, flash forward to 19 I’m still dating the douche. I had been pushed around, had bruises left on me, lots of little sh-t had happened but I never told anyone. He was always terribly sorry and made it out to be my fault. I was young and he totally manipulated me because he had a weird hold over me since he took my virginity. I was going to college and living in my own house alone. I had experienced life outside my crazy small town and something in me snapped after a day of abuse. I was f–king done. It was late November and he had just purchased me a Christmas tree. When I called to finally break up with him, he was pissed off and told me he just wanted his Christmas tree. Fine. I left it on my front porch and went to a friend’s house. I had a really terrible feeling and needed to not be home. I started getting a plethora of phone calls and texts from him. They started off begging me to talk, then when I didn’t respond he left me voice mails telling me his mother had a heart attack and he needed me. We lived a couple hours from our hometown and he started timing his calls with what town he’d be at if he were actually driving. ‘I’m not anywhere near you. I just passed [name of town] and I’m so scared about my mom. Please call me.’ Then 15 minutes later when he’d be passing another town I’d get the same call. He kept saying he wasn’t anywhere near me. I ended up turning off my phone and staying at my friends house until 3 am. When I got home I was careful to drive around and make sure his car wasn’t around. I ran inside and got a call on my land line. ‘Where have you been?’ It was the absolute coldest I’ve ever heard his voice. I told him not to call me and hung up. Two seconds later my door flew open and I was thrown against my counter. (continued…)
He was screaming, asking where I had been, who I was with, why was I ignoring him, etc. I started begging him to calm down. I reached for my cell phone and he broke it in half and ripped my landline out of the wall. The rest is basically a blur. He totally trashed my house. At one point I made it outside. Neighbors 2 doors away saw him grab my hair and drag me inside. They did nothing. He grabbed a knife he’d brought and held it against my neck, then told me that’s not how he wanted me to go. He grabbed my face and shoved it into my couch, suffocating me. This encounter was nearing 2 hours long at this point and I couldn’t get loose and started losing consciousness. Something happened and he snapped out of it. He let go and did a total 180. He started bawling and apologizing. He hugged me and was begged me to forgive him. I told him I forgave him but he needed to go so I could rest. I told him whatever I needed to, to get him out of my house. I immediately plugged in my landline and called 911. He started knocking on the door, crying and apologizing. I said I had just called police, and he screamed ‘you f–king b–ch!’ And left. He pled down to false imprisonment and was only given a little community service. I had a restraining order for awhile. The second it was up he called and asked me to be a ‘team player’ and help him get the charges expunged. Nope. Haven’t heard from him since.
23. Knife Fight
Not my story, but that of a friend. He’s a very intelligent chap. Went to MIT. While he was there he started dating this girl going to Wellesley and, as these things happen, they eventually broke up. Was as typical as breakups can be until a couple of nights later when his new ex sneaks into his room, sits on his back while he is sleeping, and stabs him in the back 7 times with a pocketknife. Which, as I understand it, was a bit alarming. He starts defending himself, knocks the knife out of her hand. She pulls out another one. Rinse and repeat. At this point she just leaves, as she was likely running low on knives. He is, of course, freaking out, having just been stabbed and all. He calls 911 and while the paramedics are there working on his back before taking him to the hospital (luckily it was a short blade) the police are asking him what twas going on, where to find this girl, and what she looks like. He says he doesn’t know where she is currently, to which she replies, ‘Here I am’. She was in the hallway, still covered in blood, having come back with another knife. A couple days later she received a crossbow in the mail. I do believe she was later found not guilty on the premise of insanity. If any of you went to MIT, this is the story behind why MIT men are warned not to date Wellesley women.