citizen rushes to aid stabbing victim in downtown sudbury
3 minute read
aaron labreche of sudbury cuddles with his daughter. the cp worker was heading home from his job on the afternoon of june 14 when he encountered a man suffering from serious stab wounds on a downtown street and promptly came to his aid.
a routine walk home from work turned into a life-or-death situation for aaron labreche when he encountered a stabbing victim in downtown sudbury on june 14.
while others watched, labreche stepped in to help, a decision that would leave a profound impact on both men. while the victim is now in stable condition and greater sudbury police have identified a suspect in the case, for labreche the experience reinforced the power of showing compassion to someone in crisis.
labreche finished his shift working at the cp rail yard at 3:30 p.m. and was making his way home when he turned the corner from larch street onto young street and noticed a man ahead of him, bleeding.
“he was walking very calmly, but i noticed that on the left side of his body, it was just like, a garden hose of blood pouring out of his sweater, out of his sleeve and onto the ground,” he said. “there was a blood trail just following him.”
labreche said it took him a few seconds to realize what he was seeing, but when he did, he rushed to the man’s side and asked him what happened and if he needed help.
“he said that he had just gotten stabbed and if i could call him an ambulance,” said labreche, who noticed the man had a bag of clothes with him, a pack of cigarettes, but no phone.
“i walked him up to the corner in front of the bus depot and sat him down,” he said. “and he was just bleeding out. a crazy amount of blood was coming out from the left side of his sweater. i realized i had to get his clothes off to see where he was stabbed.”
lindsey trudeau, 33, is wanted for attempted murder in relation to a downtown stabbing.
coincidentally, four days prior, labreche had completed his first aid and cpr recertification, and so the training was fresh in his mind.
“i don’t know if he was in shock because he didn’t know where he was stabbed,” said labreche. “i was trying to get his sweater off … finally i got his clothes off waist up, and i noticed he was stabbed in the arm, maybe four or five times, and once in the chest on the left side, right where his heart was.”
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labreche said while he was on the phone with the 911 operator, he was trying to find something to tie around the man’s arm.
“i ended up just taking off my shirt, and i made a tourniquet and tied it on his upper arm, as tight as i could get it,” he said. “he said he was getting light-headed, just from the amount of blood that was coming out. i laid him down and put my sweater underneath his head. there was no one there to help me. everyone was just watching.”
finally, he said a woman passed by, stopped and sprang into action too, placing pressure on the victim’s chest wound.
labreche said the man told him he didn’t know who stabbed him. “maybe he did and just didn’t want to say,” said labreche.
paramedics and police arrived shortly after, and labreche provided a statement.
“i’ve never really seen anything like that before,” said labreche, who reached out to the sudbury star to tell his story. “at first, it was just like autopilot. i was just trying to help him, but when i saw how fast he was bleeding out, i kind of started to panic, and your mind is thinking a million miles an hour.”
labreche’s voice shook when he recounted the events of that sunday afternoon. he wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t stopped to help the man.
“he didn’t have a cellphone, and no one was trying to help,” he said. “there was blood everywhere. there’s no way that no one didn’t see what was happening. i think i did end up saving his life. i would like to think so.”
a spokesperson for greater sudbury police told the sudbury star that the 33-year-old victim was in stable condition after suffering serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
as a result of the ongoing investigation, lindsey trudeau, 33, is wanted for attempted murder and weapons dangerous. anyone who knows where he is should call the police at 705-675-9171 or crime stoppers at 705-222-8477.
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trudeau has a long criminal record. ten years ago, for example, he was sentenced to nine months in jail for stabbing another man in the neck during a robbery that occurred during a drug deal in july 2015.
bluesky: @sudburystar.bsky.social
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