Heroes in the Ax Attack

It’s Sunday night, and you’ve winded down to go to sleep. You’re in your sleepwear, your morning alarm is set, and tomorrow, your weekday routine begins again. Abruptly a scream pierces your still, quiet room, and you’re snapped out of your sleepiness. Do you wait for another scream to confirm trouble, or are you drawn to action?

On June 29 at the 200 block of East Scott Street, when Alidor Sita Masingo attacked a women with an ax, Truman State University junior Jordan Lambay took the path of immediate action.

Lambay and Truman graduate Gabriel Gowen stepped into the middle of the dispute while their roommate Tyler Preston called 911. None of these men were harmed, and they might have saved a woman’s life.

Lambay, Gowen and Preston were neighbors of Masingo and the victim. Lambay said he spoke with his neighbors almost every day despite having an English-French language barrier. 

Lambay said on the night of the attack, around 11, he was getting ready to go to bed — he had to be up for work the next morning — when he heard screams from outside.

“My roommate came through the door and said there was a man with an ax attacking a lady in the front yard,” Lambay said.

Lambay said he and Gowen went out the side door of their house so they would not be seen by the attacker while Preston called 911.

“By the time I got to the front, she was already in the middle of the street, laying down,” Lambay said. “He was above her with their kids begging him to stop.”

For more, pick up a copy of The Index on Thursday, Aug. 30.