Maryland woman thanks man who saved her after stabbing
A Maryland woman who nearly lost her life after a stabbing lived to tell her story and reunite with the man who came to her rescue.
Elda Robinson, 75, was grabbing dinner for her nephew and his son on Nov. 1 at Eddie Leonard’s Carry Out in Camp Springs. She had just gotten out of her car and walked into the restaurant when a man punched and stabbed her.
The only other people in the restaurant were the cooks behind the counter, she told USA TODAY.
Robinson recalled yelling for help and falling to the floor as she began to lose blood. She said her keys must’ve fallen out of her hand, because her attacker eventually drove off with her car.
“In the meantime, I was banging on the glass door of the restaurant,” Robinson said. “It looked like one of these horror stories where someone is at a door and sliding down.”
“Then, this guy walks in,” she recalled. “A godsend.”
Michael Moore, 67, lives in Washington, D.C., but was in Camp Springs, Maryland, to grab food and see a friend, he told USA TODAY. He recalled a man running past him as he pulled up to the shopping center where the restaurant is located.
“I thought maybe he was running to get some money out of his car or trying to catch a bus,” Moore said. “I just proceeded to go into the store. And when I went into the store I saw a lady on the floor.”
He asked her if she was OK, and that’s when she told him someone had stabbed her and ran off.
Moore ran into the restaurant and asked employees for a pair of rubber gloves and paper towels. That’s when Moore noticed a gash in her chest. He asked her if she wanted to lie down, but when she did, she couldn’t breathe.
“That’s when I knew something was really wrong, so I pulled her back up,” Moore said. “I got behind her and I put my knees on her back, behind her shoulders to keep her from folding back.”
“We’re going to get through this together,” he told her while propping her up and applying paper towels to her wounds. “You ain’t got to worry about me leaving. I’m not going nowhere. We’re going to keep talking and I need you to keep your eyes open.”
Someone called 911 and Moore continued trying to stop the bleeding from her chest. The woman also said her left arm was hurting, Moore recalled. He saw a large amount of blood coming from her arm and knew he needed a tourniquet, or a band to tie around it to stop the bleeding. Neither were on hand, but the ambulance eventually arrived.
“In emergencies like that, it seems like a lifetime but I don’t think it was that much time before they actually came,” he said, noting that he let the paramedics take over.
Moore said his father was a medic in the military who talked to him about his work sometimes. The D.C. resident has also taken CPR classes and watched a lot of television shows and documentaries about emergencies, medical care and helping people, he said.
“I guess all that just kicked in,” he told USA TODAY. “I did what I had to do and I stopped that bleeding because she would’ve bled out.”
Robinson’s story was eventually featured on television station WUSA. During the interview, she expressed gratitude for Moore, although she didn’t know who he was and had no way of contacting him.
Moore heard about the report and called the television station. Employees there were able to reunite the pair at Robinson’s Fort Washington home, where she was shown crying and rushing to embrace him.
“You saved my life,” she said to Moore in the video. “If it wasn’t for this man, I would be dead today.”
She told USA TODAY that he is her “guardian angel.” Moore said the reunion gave him closure and he just wanted to know that Robinson was OK.
“All I saw was a woman hurt and she needed help, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I helped her.”
James Christopher Minor, 30, was arrested in connection to the stabbing after a woman reported a parked vehicle, which turned out to be Robinson’s, in her driveway. Minor’s brother saw a news release about the stabbing and identified him as the man wanted in connection. Minor is currently in police custody on multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, assault, armed robbery and theft.
Minor’s attorney, Jonathan Newton, said his client was trying to get help for his mental health issues before the stabbing occurred, and that he was supposed to be hospitalized at the time of the incident. Newton said the stabbing was avoidable and Minor is “not criminally responsible for a crime.”
“If people don’t have money, they’re kind of scuttled around,” Newton said. “He is a victim of a system as much as she is a victim in this incident. We do wish the victim a speedy recovery.”
Newton plans to file a motion for a medical review of Minor’s competency.
Robinson was hospitalized for six days for wounds on her left arm, left upper torso, neck and face, court documents show.
“I feel like a zombie on my left side but my right side, I can use pretty well,” she said.
She said she has lived in her neighborhood 30 years and has been to Eddie Leonard’s many times. She said she has never seen the man charged in the stabbing before.
Now, she cares for her 47-year-old nephew who has a disability, is blind in one eye and has very limited use of his other eye. She also takes care of her nephew’s 17-year-old son.
A GoFundMe has been created by her family to help with expenses.