WATCH: Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt said four sailors helped save a stabbing victim’s life outside a bowling alley in Langford in March. Warning: Story and video contain graphic details that may be disturbing to some CHEK News viewers. Video Credit: CFB Esquimalt.
Four Royal Canadian Navy sailors stationed at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt are being hailed heroes after saving a stabbing victim’s life in Langford last month.
One man was stabbed several times outside the Langford Lanes bowling alley early in the morning on March 17. According to police, there was an argument that led to a fight before the stabbing. Police said the suspect, 20-year-old Austin Bonner, fled the area after the stabbing and was arrested in connection with the incident on March 19. He was later charged with aggravated assault.
The Canadian Armed Forces said the four sailors jumped into action once they realized someone had been stabbed outside the bowling alley.
The four men had been spending an “easy” evening bowling before they decided to leave for the night. Ordinary Seaman Hubert Desbiens and Leading Seaman Alexandre Bujold-Foisy were the first to discover the stabbing victim.
Desbiens said he heard a strange, dripping sound, like water falling on the ground, outside the bowling alley. At first, he said thought someone dropped a bottle but then realized it was blood.
?I was like, ?Is it really happening??? said Desbiens in a video posted on the CFB Esquimalt page. ?He was bleeding out, literally. He was pretty bad.?
Bujold-Foisy said he also heard a spraying sound when he was walking into the parking lot.
He said he saw a man with a bag and a water bottle. Bujold-Foisy thought the man was drunk and walking around while dropping water.
?Then I realized, it kind of clicked in, it was blood that I was looking at and it was literally everywhere ? everywhere on the parking lot, sidewalk,” Bujold-Foisy said.
He ran back into the bowling alley and called 911. Desbiens and Ordinary Seaman Christopher Hachez, who had been paying with Ordinary Seaman Frederic Lapointe earlier, started administering first-aid. Desbiens said he took off his sweater, rolled it into a tourniquet and applied it to the victim’s arm. The two then put the man in the recovery position.
?He kind of passed out for, like, five seconds, and I was like, ?We need to do something more, there?s something going on,?? Desbiens said.
Desbiens, Hachez and Bujold-Foisy, who was done calling 911, then looked for more wounds on the victim and found one on his chest.
?I took off my shirt and my jacket and used that as a tourniquet as well for the wounds on his forearms and the one he had on his ribs because once we figured out he had more wounds than what we expected, we started taking off our clothes and using our clothes as bandages,? Hachez said. ?That’s all we had on us.?
?He was bleeding out a lot. He passed out once and then once we put him in recovery position, he came back, and then we kind of lost him a little bit, but we were able to keep talking to him, to keep getting him to give a response at all times. He was always conscious, we were always giving him some information at least to keep him awake and keeping pressure on his wounds.?
Lapointe said he was the one who put himself between the victim and the alleged attacker.
?He risked his life more than us,? Desbiens said.
According to Lapointe, the suspect kept trying to come toward the victim.
?I tried to push him away and make sure he kept his distance,? Lapointe said. ?I kept asking questions, I told a girl to call 911 because the guy was still there and started giving [his] description. He started running away and I followed him to the roundabout, probably like 200 metres.
Lapointe said he had a discussion with the suspect.
“I was just trying to stall the conversation to make sure the police could come and arrest him. At one point we heard the police and then he just started running away,” Lapointe said, adding the suspect’s friend said his name by mistake.
Afterward, Lapointe said he went back to the parking lot to bring the ambulance to the victim. The man was taken to hospital. The Canadian Armed Forces and West Shore RCMP said the man is in stable but serious condition.
All four sailors said the trust they had in each other, as well as their Canadian Armed Forces training, led to their quick response.
?We all knew each other, we?re all kind of the same people in general,” Hachez said.
Const. Matt Baker with the West Shore RCMP said the four men did the best job they could have and the police thank them for their actions.
?There was a couple times it was touch-and-go that without their quick thinking, without their communication and their skill, that there?s a very good chance that man could have died,” Baker said.
From left to right, Ordinary Seaman Christopher Hachez, Ordinary Seamn Frederic Lapointe, Ordinary Seaman Hubert Desbiens and Leading Seaman Alexandre Bujold-Foisy. Photo Credit: CFB Esquimalt
LISTEN: The four sailors stationed at CFB Esquimalt describe saving the stabbing victim’s life.
Alexa Huffman
