'I did what I had to do': Man rescues stranger after stabbing incident

A Maryland woman who nearly lost her life after a stabbing lived to tell her story and reunite with the man who came to her rescue.

Elda Robinson, 75, was grabbing dinner for her nephew and his son on Nov. 1 at Eddie Leonard's Carry Out in Camp Springs, about six miles southeast of Oxon Hill. 

She had just gotten out of her car and walked into the restaurant when a man punched and stabbed her.

The only other people in the restaurant were the cooks behind the counter, she told USA TODAY on Thursday, adding that she yelled for help.

As she began to lose more and more blood, she fell to the floor of the restaurant, Robinson recalled. Her keys must’ve fallen out of her hand when she fell because shortly after the man ran for the door and eventually drove off with her car, she said.

“In the meantime, I was banging on the glass door of the restaurant,” Robinson said. “It looked like one of these horror stories where someone is at a door and sliding down. Then, this guy walks in.”

She said that man, 67-year-old Michael Moore, was “a godsend.”

‘We’re going to get through this together’

Moore lives in Washington D.C. but was in Camp Springs, Maryland to grab food and see a friend, he told USA TODAY Thursday afternoon.

As he pulled up to the shopping center the restaurant is located in, he saw a man run by him, he recalled.

“I thought maybe he was running to get some money out of his car or trying to catch a bus,” Moore said. “I just proceeded to go into the store and when I went into the store I saw a lady on the floor.”

He initially thought Robinson was panhandling or just hanging out there in the corner of the restaurant’s entrance hall. When he took another look at her, he knew something wasn’t right. He asked if she was OK and that’s when she told him someone had stabbed her and ran off.

Moore ran into the restaurant and asked employees for some rubber gloves and paper towels. An employee brought some and went to help him tend to Robinson. That’s when he opened her top to find her wounds and noticed she had a gash in her chest.

He asked her if she wanted to lie down but when she did, she couldn’t breathe.

“That's when I knew something was really wrong, so I pulled her back up,” Moore said. “I got behind her and I put my knees on her back, behind her shoulders to keep her up, from folding back.”

As he propped her up and applied paper towels to her stab wounds, Moore asked the woman her name and comforted her.

“We’re going to get through this together,” he told her. “You ain’t got to worry about me leaving. I’m not going nowhere. We’re going to keep talking and I need you to keep your eyes open.”

Someone called 911 and Moore continued trying to stop the bleeding. He had compressed so hard the bleeding had stopped on her chest but the woman also said her left arm was hurting, Moore recalled. He looked down at her arm and saw a large amount of blood, he said.

He knew he needed a tourniquet, or a band he could tie around her to stop the bleeding elsewhere, but he didn’t have that or a belt on hand, he said.

“In emergencies like that, it seems like a lifetime but I don’t think it was that much time before they actually came,” he said, noting that he let paramedics take over once they arrived.

Good samaritan was raised by a military medic, watches lots of TV

Moore said his father was a medic in the military who talked to him about his work sometimes.

The D.C. resident has also taken CPR classes and watched a lot of television shows and documentaries about emergencies, medical care and helping people, he said.

“I guess all that just kicked in,” he told USA TODAY. “I did what I had to do and I stopped that bleeding because she would’ve bled out. Elda would’ve died.”

Moore said he went to the restaurant the next day and talked to a police officer in the area, asking her if she knew how Robinson was doing. 

The cop didn’t know anything but not too long after, a friend called Moore and told him Robinson was on the news and wanted to meet him.

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Reunion and closure for stabbing victim and her ‘guardian angel’

On Saturday, Robinson’s story was featured on television station WUSA. 

She said during the segment that she was grateful for Moore, although she didn’t know who he was and had no way of contacting him at the time. 

He called the television station and employees were able to reunite the pair on Monday at Robinson’s Fort Washington home.

Video filmed by the television station shows Robinson crying and rushing to embrace Moore in a hug. 

"You saved my life," she said to him in the video. “If it wasn't for this man, I would be dead today." 

She told USA TODAY Thursday that he is her “guardian angel.”

Moore said the reunion gave him closure and he just wanted to know Robinson is OK.

“All I saw was a woman hurt and she needed help, and that's what I did,” he said. “I helped her.”

Man charged in stabbing is mentally ill, lawyer says

James Christopher Minor, 30, was arrested in connection to the stabbing. 

Online court records show he is facing multiple felony charges such as attempted first degree murder and first degree assault. He has also been charged with armed robbery and theft.

Investigators were able to identify him as a suspect after a woman in a nearby neighborhood contacted police. Someone had parked a vehicle, which turned out to be Robinson’s, in her driveway. 

The woman captured surveillance footage showing Minor park the vehicle, then get out and run away. 

Minor's brother eventually approached investigators and said he saw a news release about a stabbing. Both Minor’s brother and mother identified him as the man wanted in connection to the stabbing. 

Attorney Jonathan Newton is representing Minor and said his client was supposed to be hospitalized at the time of the stabbing. He said the stabbing was avoidable and Minor is “not criminally responsible for a crime.”

He said Minor was trying to get help for his mental health issues before the stabbing occurred.

“If people don’t have money, they’re kind of scuttled around,” Newton said. “He is a victim of a system as much as she is a victim in this incident. We do wish the victim a speedy recovery.”

Minor is currently in police custody but Newton plans to file a motion for a medical review of Minor’s competency, he said.

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Stabbing victim is on the mend, she says

Robinson was hospitalized for six days. She has wounds on left arm, left upper torso, neck and face, court documents show.

“I feel like a zombie on my left side but my right side, I can use pretty well,” she said, adding that she’s still shaken up and is going to be very cautious of who is around her.

She said she has lived in her neighborhood 30 years and has been to Eddie Leonard’s many times. She’s not sure what brought on the attack and said she has never seen the man charged in the stabbing before. She wonders if he even remembers what happened.

“If you see yourself on the news and the police are coming after you, you go to another state or you run away,” she said. “But he stayed right there with his family.”

She said she has always devoted her life to caring for those around her. 

Now, she cares for her 47-year-old nephew who has a disability, is blind in one eye and has very limited use of his other eye. She also takes care of her nephew’s 17-year-old son. 

Robinson’s family has started a GoFundMe to support their family.

To donate, visit www.tinyurl.com/ForEldaMD.