Paramedics credited with saving gay stabbing victim’s life

Source:The Washington Blade


Police and fire department paramedics have been credited with saving the life of a gay man whose jugular vein was slashed by an attacker who stabbed him multiple times on Nov. 21 after the two had sex in the victim’s D.C. apartment, according to police and court documents.

Responding within minutes of receiving emergency calls by sixth floor residents of River Park Apartments at 1311 Delaware Ave., S.W., paramedics and emergency medical technicians from the nearby Engine Company 7 firehouse staunched the bleeding neck of Lindley Murray before rushing him to the Med Star Unit at Washington Hospital Center, court records show.

On Nov. 24, detectives with the D.C. Police Department’s First District charged Tyrrell Jefferson, 23, with assault with intent to kill Murray following an intense, three-day investigation over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. A police affidavit in support of Jefferson’s arrest states that Murray played a key role in helping investigators identify and locate Jefferson after Murray made a “miraculous” recovery at the hospital. It states that Murray provided police with a digital photo of Jefferson, which Murray had stored in his cell phone.

The affidavit says Murray told police he had been an acquaintance of Jefferson for six years. He told investigators he picked Jefferson up from a location in Southeast D.C. on the night before the attack and drove him to his apartment after Jefferson expressed an interest in seeing him, the affidavit says.

“The complainant said that the two of them had sex together and that he fell asleep,” the affidavit says. “While sleeping, the complainant said that for no apparent reason, Tyrrell attacked him with a knife.” Murray told police Jefferson stabbed him repeatedly in the head, face and neck and that Jefferson retrieved a second knife from the kitchen after the first knife he used broke, the affidavit says. The affidavit says Jefferson fled the apartment after Murray ran outside the apartment into the hallway and screamed for help, prompting neighbors in nearby apartments to call police, according to the affidavit.

“Upon arriving on the scene, uniformed patrol officers located the complainant lying nude in the 6th floor hallway in front of his own apartment, suffering from multiple lacerations to his face, head, and neck,” the affidavit says. It says Jefferson drove away from the scene in Murray’s car, which police reported as stolen. Police found the car a short time later in Southeast D.C. and were able to locate Jefferson through a witness who was observed by police inside the car, the affidavit says. Jefferson is being held without bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday.

Sgt. J.B. Wallace, the gay liaison for the D.C. Fire & Emergency Medical Services Department, said records show that a fire truck with a paramedic and an ambulance with two medical technicians arrived on the scene five minutes and 27 seconds after the first call came in, a development that likely played an important role in saving Murray’s life.