Firefighters Rescue Bloodied Woman From Cleaver-Wielding Husband in the Middle of NYC's Chinatown
There was a gruesome scene Sunday morning in Manhattan's Chinatown after a man attacked his wife with a meat cleaver, causing critical injuries before nearby firefighters came to the woman's rescue. The unidentified 28-year-old attacker was pulling his wife down a busy street when two New York City firefighters, Jose Ortiz and James Trainor, spotted the pair from their firehouse and attempted to intervene.
"I saw a man dragging a woman who was crying and screaming down the street," said Ortiz, an 18-year FDNY veteran, told the New York Post.
When the man saw the firefighters approaching him, he pulled the cleaver from his waistband and attacked his wife, hitting her "six, eight, maybe 10 times," according to Ortiz. Ortiz and Trainor quickly tackled the man, allowing his wife to escape; once free, she took off running, leaving behind her shoes and, as the Post gruesomely put it, "clumps of her bloody hair."
Another firefighter, Shane Clarke, chased after the victim and treated her on the scene. She was later taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she's in critical but stable condition. The husband was taken into custody at the scene and charges were, as of Sunday afternoon, still pending.
As for the firefighters, it wasn't their typical Sunday morning. "Besides the World Trade Center, this was the craziest thing I've ever seen," Clarke told the Daily News.
