Good Samaritan Dies From Injuries

[MJS]

Hero dies from knife injuries after fighting off stranger's attacker

Not all heroic deeds have happy endings. Sometimes, they result in tragedy.
Southern California resident Troy Cansler, 47, is no doubt a hero. After witnessing the stabbing of a woman who was holding her toddler in a grocery store parking lot on Sunday evening, Cansler intervened. The attacker ran off with the woman's purse and then stabbed Cansler, who had given chase. Cansler died from his injuries.
The woman, Krystina Hanrahan, is now recovering at home. She was stabbed five times, twice in the arm and three times in the chest. The child was apparently unhurt.

I certainly tip my hat to this man, for his actions. Sadly his good intentions, resulted in his death. This is why I tend to lean more towards not physically getting involved, but instead, calling the police, providing good details of what's going on, a description of the suspect, etc. In this situation, I'd be more inclined to let the guy run off, and see if there was something I could do to help the female.

At least in the end, the dirtbag criminal, was arrested.

Thoughts?

 

[donald1]

Cansler sounds like a brave man, hopefully he is now in a better place

 

[K-man]

The sad truth is that the good guy had already done the job. The woman was safe and the attacker was running away. Was it really necessary to chase after the bad guy? Self defence is not always about fighting. Once you engage you never know what is going to happen.
:asian:

 

[ballen0351]

The main reason I carry a gun almost all the time.

 

[pgsmith]

Sorry, but it sounds to me like he died from stupidity. Intervening to assist in that situation is brave and praiseworthy. Chasing after an armed assailant, while leaving an injured woman bleeding on the ground, is just plain stupid. I am having a lot of trouble conjuring too much sympathy for a "hero" who would try so hard to be the "hero" that he would leave the injured woman to possibly bleed to death so he could chase the assailant.

I didn't watch the video, so perhaps he had a good reason for chasing the bad guy rather than attending to the wounded victim. At first blush though, it doesn't sound quite as "heroic" as they are making it out to be.

Maybe I'm just having a cynical day!

 

[arnisador]

Good intentions but alas poor judgment.

 

[wingchun100]

I told this story before on one of the other forums: a guy (let's call him Ted) goes out for dinner with his long-time female friend (we'll call her Stacy). They haven't seen each other in a while so they go out to catch up. Stacy NEGLECTS to tell Ted that she has a psycho thug ex who stalks her. Well, the ex and some of his boys follow her to the restaurant. When Ted and Stacy leave, the thugs decide to follow Ted. They confront Ted on his lawn. Ted goes inside the house. And what does he do? Instead of calling the police, he goes back outside with a baseball bat. The thugs get the bat away from him...and beat Ted to death.

Moral of the story: don't be a tough guy. Don't go outside with a weapon unless you plan to use it. And last but not least, if you are safely inside your home, call the frickin' police.

 

[billc]

It may very well be that in the excitement of the moment he saw the guy run and automatically started to chase him...too caught up in the moment and the adrenaline spike to realize that he should have stopped...less being dumb than in an unfamiliar situation.

Always call the police...but having a gun with training goes a long way in these situations...

 

[MJS]

Sorry, but it sounds to me like he died from stupidity. Intervening to assist in that situation is brave and praiseworthy. Chasing after an armed assailant, while leaving an injured woman bleeding on the ground, is just plain stupid. I am having a lot of trouble conjuring too much sympathy for a "hero" who would try so hard to be the "hero" that he would leave the injured woman to possibly bleed to death so he could chase the assailant.

I didn't watch the video, so perhaps he had a good reason for chasing the bad guy rather than attending to the wounded victim. At first blush though, it doesn't sound quite as "heroic" as they are making it out to be.

Maybe I'm just having a cynical day!

No, I'm with you on this one. Even if I was armed, I'd still be hesitant to do something. A story that happened in the city that I work in. An off duty Police officer was out with his family. The shopping plaza they were in, had a bank. So, as the off duty is getting into his car, he sees 2 guys, exit a car, with a piece of cardboard over the rear plate, pulling up the hoods on their hoodies, and putting on gloves. He calls the Police. He stayed there, giving us a blow by blow description of what was going on. We sent other officers to the bank, so while we're talking to this off duty, who was carrying, he asks if we want him to stop the guys when they came out of the bank. Well, since he wasn't in the town that he worked, technically he really didn't have to do anything. So, the guys walk out of the bank, and he takes out his gun and tells them to stop. As he's doing this, other officers arrived, and took the 2 into custody.

Now I'm certainly not holding anything against this guy. Had he done nothing, odds are, it'd be an unsolved robbery. I certainly tip my hat to the off duty. Was he thinking about anything else while he was doing that, ie: his family, would his actions bite him in the ***, what if they had weapons and started shooting, etc. I don't know. But he made a decision, and all worked out.

As for this story....I'd have stayed and did what I could to help the victim, while calling for help, giving a description of the guy, etc.

 

[Mark Lynn]

Sorry, but it sounds to me like he died from stupidity. Intervening to assist in that situation is brave and praiseworthy. Chasing after an armed assailant, while leaving an injured woman bleeding on the ground, is just plain stupid. I am having a lot of trouble conjuring too much sympathy for a "hero" who would try so hard to be the "hero" that he would leave the injured woman to possibly bleed to death so he could chase the assailant.

I didn't watch the video, so perhaps he had a good reason for chasing the bad guy rather than attending to the wounded victim. At first blush though, it doesn't sound quite as "heroic" as they are making it out to be.

Maybe I'm just having a cynical day!

I understand your point here but I think you might be a bit harsh on the guy. First off from watching the video, it sounds as if the guy was stabbed when he intervened as he tried to tackle the guy. Now we don't know if it was down the street after he gave chase, or he came to the woman's aid as the guy turned to run and tackled him and was killed within a few feet of the initial attack. All the written story says is he gave chase, but in the video it is unclear. Also we don't know if the guy knew the guy was armed with the knife or not. It was dark in a parking lot outside of a store.

The woman first described the guy hitting her from behind and slamming her head into a shopping cart where her two year old daughter was, and a struggle ensued, she's got stabbed in the arm twice and in her chest 3 times as she tried to hold onto her purse. All we know is that the good Samaritan saw something and intervened.

Perhaps the guy saw the woman being assaulted (from behind and having her head slammed into the shopping cart) with her young daughter in danger and then the struggle; since it was dark, and the wounds were inflicted close quarters and they were small (at that) chances are the guy never knew she was stabbed and he went after the attacker.

While the family and everyone else is talking about the guy being a hero to everyone, I think that is more like putting a silver lining on a tragedy. I believe the guy was acting in the woman's and her child's best interest when he intervened, not trying to make a name for himself.

What this does speak to is the dangers of going to the ground especially if there is a weapon around.