A Brooklyn good Samaritan who helped two women evade a stranger stalking them ended up being stabbed by the suspect, he recounted to the Daily News.
The 26-year-old good Samaritan and a friend intervened after being approached by one of the women in Kensington on June 21.
“I would do it again,” the wounded good Samaritan said. “If we weren’t there, who knows what he would’ve done to her? I hope she is good. I hope she is safe.”
Cops have released a surveillance photo of the suspect, dressed in a gray hoodie and gray sweatpants, and are asking the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down.
The bizarre chain of events began when the first victim, a 31-year-old woman on her way home from work, was approached by the stranger near Coney Island Ave. and Cortelyou Road about 1 a.m., according to cops.
“He tried to talk to me from afar because he noticed that I noticed him. And he was, like, ‘I go this direction. I live in this direction.’ He kept saying that out loud,” said the woman, who asked that her name not be used. “He was kind of catcalling at first … but that didn’t faze me. It happens to women and I’m sure men in the city. I’m not worried.”
But then the woman noticed the man started following her closely. She dashed into a local deli to seek help and get away from the stalker.
After spending five minutes in the store, the woman hoped the stalker would leave, only to notice him hiding behind a nearby liquor store. That’s when she asked the good Samaritan and his friend, whom she knows from the neighborhood, to walk her home.
The good Samaritan, a manager at a kosher restaurant, and his 29-year-old friend agreed and escorted her back to her place.
“The lady approached me and said her life was in danger,” the good Samaritan said. “This guy was following her. We saw him a few blocks away still following her, so we walked her home and she was safe.”
When the woman reached home, she waited around 10 minutes before going back outside to walk her dog. That’s when she noticed the stalker on her block, hiding behind a tree. She went back inside, locked her doors and called police.
“It was insane,” she said. “I’ve been in Brooklyn all my life and they always say s–t on the news. But I was, like, ‘Not me, I’m a tough girl. I can handle s–t.’ ”
But that all changed when she faced danger herself.
“I felt everything I ever learned to protect myself just flew out the window,” she said. “I’ve taken self-defense. I learned how to disarm someone. [But] I, like, froze.”
Cops responded but could not find the stalker.
Meanwhile, the good Samaritan and his friend were alerted by a phone app later that night that the stalker had reappeared, police said.
“We got another call from a friend that [the stalker] was in a building trying to go after another woman,” the good Samaritan said.
The two men, now joined by a third man, who identified himself as Vlad, 28, went to a building near Ditmas Ave. and Ocean Parkway, where they found a second victim — and the menacing figure — in the lobby.
“When we came in, we saw the woman was uncomfortable,” the good Samaritan said. “She didn’t say anything and then he just went after the woman. She was crying and I tried to put him down on the floor. I didn’t see the knife.”
Vlad told The News that he saw the stalker pull a black kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade out of his sleeve.
The stranger stabbed the good Samaritan multiple times in the chest and shoulder and slashed his friend once above the eye, cops said.
“He pulled a knife and started stabbing my friends,” Vlad said. “It happened so quick. It was like a movie scene. There was blood everywhere — on their clothes, on the floor, all over their bodies.”
“He stabbed me in the chest, shoulder and the lower back,” the good Samaritan said. “In the struggle I tore my ACL. Now I can’t work. I don’t know what I’m going to do. When he ran off, my friend said, ‘You’re bleeding,’ and then I realized. I didn’t feel it at first because of the adrenaline.”
Medics took the two men to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Brooklyn Methodist in stable condition.
The woman who was the stalker’s first target that night said she’s grateful for the help from the good Samaritan and his friend.
“I’m just glad I’m safe and I know the other guys are stable — that’s what matters,” she said. “I want this guy [the attacker] to get help, too. He clearly needs help if he is doing this. If he is out on the streets doing this to women and men, then he needs help, too.”
Anyone with information on the suspect’s identity or whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
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