Mormons speak about Auburn stabbing

October 24th, 2008

But you have to get it via the grapevine, not the Australian media. FAIR Blog in America has posted a Mormon account of the stabbing of Chris Collinsworth and David Ferguson at Auburn on October 14th, with some photos of revisiting the attack site:

In a letter distributed to the families of the missionaries of the Australia Sydney North mission President Scruggs recounts the events of Tuesday, October 14:

At about 8:45 PM, Elders Collinsworth (out about 6 months from Mapleton, UT; BYU basketball player, 6′9″, 220 lbs) and Elder Ferguson (out about 18 months from Great Falls, Montana; BYU major in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, 6′1″ — very slender), were walking on the sidewalk about 1/2 a block from their apartment. The area, Auburn, is our most urban. The missionaries refer to it as “all manner of ‘ese: Chinese, Sudanese, Lebanese, etc.” The Elders saw two Lebanese men, over six feet tall with mullets, walking towards them. As they approached, the Elders stepped off the sidewalk to let them pass. As soon as the men were in striking distance, they struck. Elder Collinsworth grabbed his attacker and threw him down into the street and held him to the ground. Elder Ferguson exchanged punches with his attacker with enough ferocity that the coward fled. By this time a third attacker jumped on Elder Collinsworth pulling his shirt over his head. He was knocked to the ground and kicked. He said the last thing he saw as he hit the street was Elder Ferguson running towards him. Elder Ferguson knocked the third attacker off of Elder Collinsworth. The second attacker who had run away earlier returned to join the attack.

At this time a passing Sudanese motorist stopped and honked his horn, flashed his lights and yelled. The three attackers ran away. The motorist got out and checked on the Elders — now both on the street — and then went to get a nearby policeman. At this point the Elders realized they had both been stabbed. Elder Collinsworth, once in the back; Elder Ferguson, thrice — in the thigh, the upper left arm, and the left wrist. Blood was especially pouring out of the wrist wound, so Elder Collinsworth took off his tie and bound the wound. An ambulance quickly arrived and transported them to Westmead which is a very good hospital.

...

Elder Ferguson (via his mother) gave me some details not found local news coverage:

I have 9 stitches in my hand, and about as many in my leg. My leg has an ugly L shaped cut. I think I passed out for a second when my head hit the ground and that is when one of the men stabbed me in the leg and jerked the knife. When I came to, I kicked the man in the shin, jumped up to my feet, and then tackled the other guy. I imagine I wouldn’t have done that if I knew I had been stabbed.

What the papers don’t tell you about the fight is that I was confronting the guy with the knife before he ran off. He had a scared look on his face and in reflection, it seems he was just about as surprised to be in the fight as we were. The third guy, we believe, was not connected to them and just wanted to join the fight.

… At one point for about 20 seconds [Elder Collinsworth] was being kicked really hard in the face repeatedly by two of them. He had no bruises on his face, no cuts, his teeth weren’t damaged and his nose wasn’t hurt. The only damage he received to his face was when he was punched before he was on the ground...

On Wednesday the story of the missionary attack was reported by Deseret News and other local media (for example KSL and the Daily Herald). The interest created by the sports angle ensured that media outlets throughout the nation picked the story up. As a former member of FAIR, Elder David Ferguson may very well be to our apologetic network and reader audience what Elder Chris Collinsworth is to the BYU basketball team and fans...

Several of us from FAIR contacted Margaret Ferguson to express condolences and let her know her son was in our prayers. I asked her how she found out about the attack and if there was any discussion of him coming home. She responded: “He called us from the hospital with his Mission President a few hours after the attack. He said, ‘I was in a bit of a scrap and I am in the hospital but I am O.K.’ Of course I started to cry and he told me to STOP crying. Now this sobered me up because I knew that he must not only be O.K. but back to his usual ‘not a big deal self.’ Then his Mission President got on the phone and described a little of what had happened. So we never felt like he needed to come home.” ...