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Our sweet friend Megan, along with her partner and her roommate, heroically saved two people who were being attacked in front of their home and as a result suffered injuries, trauma, and a truckload of damage to their home. They need assistance paying for medical bills, replacing blood contaminated items in their home, and getting counseling. Please consider helping them out. The story of what happened is potentially triggering, but I’ve included it in Megan’s words below.
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Potentially Triggering Story: On December 30, 2018 at 4am, my partner Paul and I were woken by a woman screaming for help outside our home. We opened our window, and saw her and another stranger being assaulted. We yelled at the man attacking them to stop and that we were calling the police, could hear other neighbors shouting from their windows for him to stop as well, but he wouldn’t. As Paul made the call to the police, I ran to the front porch, not sure what to do. When I opened the door, I noticed the attacker had started bludgeoning the male victim over the head with a fire extinguisher—it was clear to me in this moment that he was trying to kill them, that these victims were just trying to get away, and that there was no time to wait for the police to arrive—so I made a split second decision and urged the victims to come into our home for protection.
It was like a horror movie...the victims hobbling down the sidewalk and up the stairs while their assailant slowly walked behind them, knowing he could easily catch up. I remember thinking there was no way they were going to make it in before their attacker did, but the victims made it up into our home and I slammed and locked the door behind them...the male victim was bleeding profusely from his head and face and had also been stabbed multiple times. As my roommate and I ran around the house looking for stuff to stop the bleeding, the attacker started breaking down our door. The victims hid in the bathroom. We tried to reason with him and yelled for him to stop, but to no avail. No human words from him, just screaming and grunting and growling and roaring. While Paul held the door, the enraged man broke our window with the fire extinguisher. Glass everywhere. I threw the table up to block the window. The door started coming of the hinges, and so I ran to help Paul hold the door—the two of us holding this floating door between ourselves and the attacker, who then unloaded the canister of fire extinguisher into our home. The chemicals made it incredibly hard to breath. We screamed for help from our neighbors, who we knew were listening to the whole thing, but nobody came. The attacker's hands and legs started making their way in. I thought we were all going to die. I yelled at my roommate to get a knife, and I saw him stab the attacker in the hand, but the attacker was so enraged, it didn’t even matter. He kept body slamming the door, and ended up successfully pushing through and making his way into our home. I was the first point of contact—his hands grabbing at my face, ripping at the insides of my mouth. All I could think of was to get him back out of our home, and I continued to push back. My roommate pulled him off me. Paul pulled him off our roommate. We were trying desperately to get him back out. I went and got a stool and started pushing him, while Paul pulled him back toward the entryway. No longer able to use the stool in our narrow entryway, I threw it aside and went to rush the attacker. We got him out, but as we did he grabbed my braid and tried throwing me down the stairs. While Paul was trying to get the attacker off of me, I counterbalanced against the attacker using the railing, feeling the hair starting to rip out of my head. It felt like it took forever for the police to arrive, but they made it in this moment. They had to taser the attacker multiple times to get him stop; he kept trying to come back up. Even after they fully restrained him, he kept trying to fight back. I’ve never seen someone so enraged and out of control. There was so much glass and wood shards and hair and blood. The good news is that everyone is alive.
As a result of this attack, our door and window were destroyed, and our flooring had to be completely ripped out due to the blood contamination. Because it was the holidays, it was incredibly hard to get any assistance or support; everyone was on vacation. We had to board up the doors and windows on our own. We were out of our home for 3 weeks while repairs were being made, and had to miss days of work to deal with the aftermath. We had to dispose of our couch, table, chairs, art, clothing, shoes, blankets, and more; to replace all of these items, in tandem with medical appointments and bills, has required a significant amount of time and money; thousands of dollars; a huge setback.
I write this during another sleepless night. This is the most traumatic event that has occurred in my life. I never thought that saving two strangers would have resulted in such a brutal attack on our household. We live in what I imagined to be the definition of safe: a condo near the water in a gated community right next to the police station. I don’t feel safe anymore. I think about what would have happened if we lived further from the police; if we didn’t have a roommate; if I had been home alone. I fear of the attacker coming back for revenge. 5 months later, and I am still filled with worry and dread, and have had many sleepless nights. The lack of assistance we have had from our community after saving two people’s lives has been underwhelming and disappointing. I suppose this is partly because our household is not super skilled at asking for help; I'm trying to get better at this. I feel angry at the annual rave festival in our area that has hundreds of accounts of drug overdose cases, yet continues to function in the way that it does despite this. I feel anger towards online vacation rental businesses, with minimal vetting processes, for bringing people into home communities who wouldn’t otherwise be there. I feel empty, and my faith in humanity continues to diminish. Many things seem pointless now, and things that once brought me much joy now bring me little. I am so tired all of the time. Everything takes so much effort. I am trying so hard. I have had a few therapy sessions, but they have not helped much. I have a back injury that requires weekly chiropractic visits, and though I am slowly getting better, I am still not fully healed. The amount of time and brain space the aftermath of this attack has taken up is considerable. The trauma from this event has negatively impacted our lives in so many ways.
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Potentially Triggering Story: On December 30, 2018 at 4am, my partner Paul and I were woken by a woman screaming for help outside our home. We opened our window, and saw her and another stranger being assaulted. We yelled at the man attacking them to stop and that we were calling the police, could hear other neighbors shouting from their windows for him to stop as well, but he wouldn’t. As Paul made the call to the police, I ran to the front porch, not sure what to do. When I opened the door, I noticed the attacker had started bludgeoning the male victim over the head with a fire extinguisher—it was clear to me in this moment that he was trying to kill them, that these victims were just trying to get away, and that there was no time to wait for the police to arrive—so I made a split second decision and urged the victims to come into our home for protection.
It was like a horror movie...the victims hobbling down the sidewalk and up the stairs while their assailant slowly walked behind them, knowing he could easily catch up. I remember thinking there was no way they were going to make it in before their attacker did, but the victims made it up into our home and I slammed and locked the door behind them...the male victim was bleeding profusely from his head and face and had also been stabbed multiple times. As my roommate and I ran around the house looking for stuff to stop the bleeding, the attacker started breaking down our door. The victims hid in the bathroom. We tried to reason with him and yelled for him to stop, but to no avail. No human words from him, just screaming and grunting and growling and roaring. While Paul held the door, the enraged man broke our window with the fire extinguisher. Glass everywhere. I threw the table up to block the window. The door started coming of the hinges, and so I ran to help Paul hold the door—the two of us holding this floating door between ourselves and the attacker, who then unloaded the canister of fire extinguisher into our home. The chemicals made it incredibly hard to breath. We screamed for help from our neighbors, who we knew were listening to the whole thing, but nobody came. The attacker's hands and legs started making their way in. I thought we were all going to die. I yelled at my roommate to get a knife, and I saw him stab the attacker in the hand, but the attacker was so enraged, it didn’t even matter. He kept body slamming the door, and ended up successfully pushing through and making his way into our home. I was the first point of contact—his hands grabbing at my face, ripping at the insides of my mouth. All I could think of was to get him back out of our home, and I continued to push back. My roommate pulled him off me. Paul pulled him off our roommate. We were trying desperately to get him back out. I went and got a stool and started pushing him, while Paul pulled him back toward the entryway. No longer able to use the stool in our narrow entryway, I threw it aside and went to rush the attacker. We got him out, but as we did he grabbed my braid and tried throwing me down the stairs. While Paul was trying to get the attacker off of me, I counterbalanced against the attacker using the railing, feeling the hair starting to rip out of my head. It felt like it took forever for the police to arrive, but they made it in this moment. They had to taser the attacker multiple times to get him stop; he kept trying to come back up. Even after they fully restrained him, he kept trying to fight back. I’ve never seen someone so enraged and out of control. There was so much glass and wood shards and hair and blood. The good news is that everyone is alive.
As a result of this attack, our door and window were destroyed, and our flooring had to be completely ripped out due to the blood contamination. Because it was the holidays, it was incredibly hard to get any assistance or support; everyone was on vacation. We had to board up the doors and windows on our own. We were out of our home for 3 weeks while repairs were being made, and had to miss days of work to deal with the aftermath. We had to dispose of our couch, table, chairs, art, clothing, shoes, blankets, and more; to replace all of these items, in tandem with medical appointments and bills, has required a significant amount of time and money; thousands of dollars; a huge setback.
I write this during another sleepless night. This is the most traumatic event that has occurred in my life. I never thought that saving two strangers would have resulted in such a brutal attack on our household. We live in what I imagined to be the definition of safe: a condo near the water in a gated community right next to the police station. I don’t feel safe anymore. I think about what would have happened if we lived further from the police; if we didn’t have a roommate; if I had been home alone. I fear of the attacker coming back for revenge. 5 months later, and I am still filled with worry and dread, and have had many sleepless nights. The lack of assistance we have had from our community after saving two people’s lives has been underwhelming and disappointing. I suppose this is partly because our household is not super skilled at asking for help; I'm trying to get better at this. I feel angry at the annual rave festival in our area that has hundreds of accounts of drug overdose cases, yet continues to function in the way that it does despite this. I feel anger towards online vacation rental businesses, with minimal vetting processes, for bringing people into home communities who wouldn’t otherwise be there. I feel empty, and my faith in humanity continues to diminish. Many things seem pointless now, and things that once brought me much joy now bring me little. I am so tired all of the time. Everything takes so much effort. I am trying so hard. I have had a few therapy sessions, but they have not helped much. I have a back injury that requires weekly chiropractic visits, and though I am slowly getting better, I am still not fully healed. The amount of time and brain space the aftermath of this attack has taken up is considerable. The trauma from this event has negatively impacted our lives in so many ways.
Organizer and beneficiary
Megan Lowe
Beneficiary