York Beach stabbing victim: Blood was ‘gushing out of me’
Man is recovering and back to work after Oct. 12 attack
YORK, Maine — It was the first time in a while Stanley Rhodes and his son Eric had come to race radiocontrolled cars across Short Sands Beach.
The two were in the beach's parking lot Thursday, Oct. 12, when Rhodes heard a stranger's voice say something indiscernible. He was sure he heard him use a racial slur and turned to face the man, who was seated in the SUV parked next to them.
“I said, ‘What did you say?'” Rhodes recalled. “He pushed the door open, and he lunged out at me and stabbed me.”
Rhodes, stabbed in the chest and bicep, survived his injuries and returned home from the hospital Friday night. That same day, his alleged assailant Daniel Orban, 72, of Windham, Maine, was arraigned with bail set by a judge at $25,000.
Rhodes, who lives with his son in Manchester, was receiving care from a nurse at home but said he is back on his feet and recovering quickly. He said he feels well enough to continue his day-to-day life despite facing a situation that could have been much worse.
“I'm still shocked that I got stabbed,” Rhodes said.
“I couldn't even tell you what the guy looked like; it was so quick.”
Stabbing at Short Sands Beach
Rhodes' son Eric called the day of the stabbing a “strange day.” He and his father enjoy driving their radio-controlled cars, some of which are large and semi-pro quality. They had come to York often in years past and decided to return on this fall day.
The father and son were packing up their car to head back to Manchester at approximately 2:14 p.m. when police say Orban was heard speaking by Rhodes. What Orban said was not clear, but Rhodes said it sounded like “a derogatory statement about Black people.”
The stabbing then occurred over the course of about 30 seconds, according to Rhodes, as Orban came at him from inside the car. Rhodes said he didn't realize that he had been stabbed.
“I thought he was just punching me,” Rhodes said. Once Rhodes saw he was bleeding, he realized what had happened. He said he turned to his son to tell him he had been stabbed.
“Blood was actually gushing out of me, and I kind of staggered back,” Rhodes said. “I said, ‘Eric, this guy just stabbed me.’”
Stanley Rhodes said he waited, bleeding on the back of his pickup truck, as first responders arrived. Eric Rhodes called 911 while making sure to photograph the vehicle of the person who stabbed his father before the man drove away.
He said fortunately an EMT was at the beach and rushed over immediately. An off-duty nurse who was at a hotel across the street also heard what happened on her scanner and came to assist. His father was eventually taken by ambulance and treated at a hospital.
Meanwhile, police were able to locate Orban’s vehicle and pull him over on Shore Road. York police said they conducted a high-risk traffic stop in which they drew their weapons while approaching Orban’s parked vehicle. They said Orban was arrested without incident.
Eric Rhodes said the scene was treated with caution by police, who told him he needed to remain there and could not go into his father’s car until his final condition was known.
“They’re like, if he should pass away, I guess that’s escalated to a murder and not a felony assault,” Eric Rhodes said. “That didn’t really even cross my mind.”
Stabbing victim ‘sore' but ‘doing OK'
Eric Rhodes said he felt a sense of hope when he heard his father making light of what happened with his trademark “sick humor” as he was treated and taken away in the ambulance. His father said he never lost consciousness or became lightheaded after the stabbing. He was treated in the hospital for about five hours, according to the son, before he was determined to be stable.
Once he got back home, Stanley Rhodes decided he was well enough to go back to work. As a retiree, he enjoys a job working for FedEx. The stabbing, he said, hasn’t kept him away.
“I’m sore. I’m doing OK,” Rhodes said. “I went back to work. I’m one of those guys that can’t stay away.”
Police said Friday they were uncertain of the motive of the assault and Orban was not answering questions to help them at the time. Eric Rhodes said he was told Orban was making nonsensical statements to police that were racially charged.
“Saying the CIA is now controlling all of the white people in the United States and the Black people are now controlling the CIA,” Rhodes said he was told. “He was not making a lot of sense.”
Orban is scheduled for a dispositional conference in court on Jan. 23. Eric Rhodes, who watched his Friday arraignment, said he questioned Orban’s stability given his statements and actions.
“He just kind of showed he was kind of not with all his facilities,” Eric Rhodes said.