Wednesday night was the most traumatizing and horrific thing I've ever experienced.
It was in the Winnipeg Sun, and on the News.
But I've finally worked up the courage to write it out myself.
I was working at the front desk at the Y when this guy walked in. He asked me if I had a bunch of bandaids.
I said yes, and asked how many. He said "A bunch, my buddy just got shanked."
I don't speak gangster and was confused. When I began to ask more questions he said "Fuck it!" and went to leave.
His "buddy" then walked out of the bathroom. I guess he came in while myself and Sam weren't looking.
His "buddy" was covered in blood from head to toe and it was just pouring out of him.
The two of them began to run away so Sam and I ran after them.
When we got outside I realized it was a gang, and a member was holding onto the victims arm.
She turned to me and said "He's been stabbed."
Sam ran inside and called 911.
Then the gang started to run away saying "We don't want no fucking cops here! Back the fuck off!"
The member told them to go to the hospital, and told me she was going to get their license plate when they left.
I realized that they wouldn't go to the hospital and that this guy was going to die if he didn't get help right away.
I then ran across the street to them and repeatedly asked them to come back and see our life guards.
They began to get into their car when I asked them once more, but this time in the same voice I use to talk to my pre-schoolers.
And they followed me back into the Y.
I got the victim to sit down while I went and got the lifeguards. We shut down the pool, and the lifeguards began to perform first aid right in the lobby.
They realized he had been stabbed in the temple and the chest and that it was deep.
When the ambulance got there he was still breathing, but about 5 minutes later they had to put him on a stretcher and started pumping oxygen into him.
He left alive.
For the next few hours the police circled the Y looking for the guy who stabbed him. People from the press were showing up all over the place and harassing us.
I shook the whole night and had to get walked to my car. They advised me not to go to any self-serve gas pumps on the way home, and that if I did go somewhere it would have to be well lit.
As soon as I got in my house I broke down. I shook and cried and nearly threw up.
I'm still having trouble sleeping and zone out every so often while it replays in my head.
I'm ridiculously paranoid about everything. When I see people running, walking in the dark, or even if somebody is holding something weird.
From what the newspapers say, he was stabbed in the parking lot of grocery store on the corner, and a witness told a cashier to call 911. When the witness returned to the scene the gangs had ran away.
