SEYMOUR, Ind. (WDRB) -- A stranger grabbed a man and slashed his throat with a knife last week at a gas station in Seymour.
Seymour Police said Henry Stamper was ambushed at the Circle K Gas Station on Tipton Street, losing a lot of blood and fighting for his life.
"A person basically turned him around, and as soon as he turned around, he slashed him in the throat area with a knife," said Officer Jeremy Helmsing, public information officer with the Seymour Police Department. "He was on the brink of losing consciousness when we arrived on scene just due to blood loss."
Helmsing was one of a dozen officers dispatched to the scene.
"When police arrived on the scene, he was on the ground being tended to by a family member," he said. "There was a lot of blood. There was just a profuse amount of blood in the area."
The call came in as a "stabbing," but police said Stamper's neck had been slashed.
"He was basically cut completely across the neck area in a slashing motion," Helmsing said.
That's when Officer Tim Toborg, a 29-year veteran of the Seymour Police Department, used a combat gauze to stop the bleeding.
"The gauze had taken effect and stopped the blood flow by the time EMS arrived," Helmsing said.
Toberg purchased the gauze with his own money and is being called a hero for his actions. He would not talk on camera or take any credit for his actions, but he did release a statement:
Officers found the suspect, Jesse Stover, near an alley in back of the gas station. He's been questioned, arrested and charged.
"He basically attributed this to an episode of self-induced schizophrenia through drug use," Helmsing said. "He said that he has no recollection of what happened. He remembers being on the street and then blacking out and being arrested by police officers."
Jesse Stover
The Seymour Police Department hopes to purchase and supply every officer with a combat gauze in the near future.
Stover is being held at the Jackson County Detention Center. He is charged with attempted murder.
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