He was stabbed approaching his car. Now he’s looking for the people who saved his life
Mason Mitchell is a grateful man today — and he wants to find the people who helped keep him alive after he was stabbed.
He’s thankful for the man who held his head and kept him awake. He’s thankful for the women who knelt beside him and prayed. He’s thankful for his friend and the first responders who tried to stop the bleeding along his arm.
It was their combined efforts that Mitchell says kept him from dying on Dec. 29 after he was stabbed by a man in the 1200 block of West Hickory Street in Denton.
Mitchell, 20, and his friend Schuyler Montgomery, 21, were walking through an alleyway after leaving a party when a man Mitchell described as “extremely intoxicated” confronted them.
“He wouldn’t leave us alone and started getting really hostile,” Mitchell said in a phone interview with the Star-Telegram. “We started walking away, and he started attacking my friend.”
Montgomery knocked the intoxicated man to the ground, and they walked away, Mitchell said. But as they reached their car, the man caught up with them and confronted them again.
“He approached me and I told him to back up and calm down, and we got into an altercation, and we went to the ground, and he started stabbing me,” Mitchell said.
At first he didn’t realize the blood pouring to the ground was his. But he was able to get to a group of people nearby on a sidewalk for help. Montgomery, meanwhile, distracted their assailant and kept him away from Mitchell.
“They all helped me,” Mitchell said.
On Dec. 31, Mitchell posted about it on Twitter — @Mason_Track — and asked for help in finding the people who helped him.
“If anyone knows of the kind souls who held me as i poured 85% of my blood on them and the sidewalk can you get me in touch with them,” he wrote. “I NEED to thank them for keeping me awake.”
He said he remembers almost everything that happened early that morning, but his vision was blurry and he couldn’t really see those people.
“They were kneeling next to me and praying for me,” he said. “A lot of them were praying for me and there was one gentleman who was holding my head and anytime I was falling asleep, he would say my name and slap me in the face. I just want to thank them and let them know that they helped keep me alive.”
Bryan Cose, a spokesman for the Denton Police Department, said the suspect, Alan James Johnson II, was tracked down by officers and arrested. He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and held on a $10,000 bond, which he has posted, according to records.
When police arrived, they put a tourniquet around Mitchell’s arm. He was taken to a hospital in Denton and then flown to Arlington for treatment. Mitchell underwent surgery there and received 25 staples in his arm.
The stab wound is a slice that starts at Mitchell’s armpit and ends above his inner elbow. There’s a smaller stab just above it. A video of the scene shows a long trail of blood from where Mitchell was stabbed to the sidewalk where he got help.
This story was originally published January 3, 2019 at 4:17 PM.
