A woman says her life was saved by the quick action of one RCMP officer who rushed to her aid after she was stabbed multiple times during an attack by her estranged partner on New Year’s Eve.
“I would have bled to death,” said the victim, who Yellowknifer is choosing not to name, in an interview on Wednesday.
The woman was rushed to Stanton Territorial Hospital from a Williams Avenue home with serious injuries Monday night just after 8:30 p.m.
Around 8:05 p.m., the woman says she was watching the New Year’s Eve fireworks display from her balcony with her children before the viewing was violently interrupted. She tells Yellowknifer her ex viciously attacked her, first while holding her 19-month-old baby. The woman said after handing the child to a relative, she was stabbed an additional six times as she tried to fend off her attacker. She said man had entered her home by breaking a window.
RCMP announced late Wednesday afternoon that Tariq St. Croix, 24, has been charged with attempted murder, break and enter and failing to comply with probation and recognizance orders. He fled the scene but was located and arrested shortly afterwards, state police. Charges against him have not been proven in court.
The victim says she sustained near-lethal knife wounds to her chest, face, stomach and hand, causing her to bleed profusely. By the time RCMP arrived at the scene, about 10 minutes after the attack, she had already run out of pillows and blankets to try to stop the bleeding, she said.
“I was freezing cold, completely dehydrated, blurry and wanting to do nothing but sleep,” she said.
But a lone Mountie who arrived at the scene wouldn’t let her, she said.
“He kept telling me to tell him stories about my kids and he would not let me go to bed,” she said.
In what felt like a “very long time,” the victim says the officer applied pressure to her wounds, using all of his body weight, for 10 to 15 minutes before she was transported to the hospital. She doesn't know the officer's name.
“I wanted to sleep when I was in my house, when I was with paramedics, when I was in the hospital. But there was always someone there urging me not to … urging me to stay with them,” she added.
The victim, who was released from hospital Tuesday after receiving multiple stitches, says she’s recovering at home -- but still dealing with the physical and emotional toll of the stabbing.
“It’s traumatic. It’s so traumatic,” the victim said. “I’m constantly in a state of paranoia and fear and I just don’t feel safe.”
She “fully believes” her alleged attacker intended to kill her, saying he aimed for “lethal spots“ with the weapon.
“I just really lucked out and it missed every single one of those organs by just a little bit,” she said.
St. Croix has been remanded into custody and will appear in court on Jan 4.