Stab Victim Speaks Out

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Irish Voice News

Stab Victim Speaks Out

August 9, 2007

By April Drew

“I REALLY didn’t know if I was going to live or die.” These were the words of 28-year-old David Browne from Dublin after surviving a vicious knife attack in Queens two weeks ago.

Browne, who arrived in New York in June, was making his way home from football training on Thursday, July 19, when a man in his mid-twenties accosted him in Long Island City and stabbed him in the heart.

Browne, who scored a porters job in a residential building in Manhattan when he arrived in New York, left Van Courtland Park in the Bronx at 9 p.m. that evening after a strenuous training session with the Dublin football team. Like always, he got the subway back to Queens and like most people after a good workout, he was hungry.

“I went into a restaurant for a bite to eat,” remembers Browne. He finished his meal about 10:45 p.m. He began the short walk back to his apartment in Long Island City, gear bag in toe, when suddenly a man approached him on a pedal-bike from behind. The attacker unexpectedly swung around and plunged a knife straight through Browne’s heart.

“I just saw this arm coming at me and before I knew it a knife went through my chest,” he described. “I knew something serious was after happening but I wasn’t sure what until I saw the blood,” he said, explaining he could see it seeping through his white shirt.

“I was about two blocks away from McReilly’s bar in Queens so I ran in there and luckily for me there was a retired FBI agent and a retired fire man so they knew what to do.”

The men laid Browne on the floor and wrapped cloth around his chest in an effort to stop the bleeding. “These guys probably saved my life and the two girls working behind the bar too were wonderful. They did so much to help me.”

Browne took his top off. “The blood was coming out like a hose,” he described. “I knew by the rate I was loosing blood that if the ambulance didn’t come soon I was in serious trouble. For about fifteen minutes I didn’t know if I was going live or die.”

As soon as Browne hit the floor he began to get weaker and weaker. “I was really drifting off, I even fell unconscious at one stage.” The ambulance arrived a few minutes later and rushed him to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.

“The paramedics did such a wonderful job. They did their best to keep me awake.”

By the time the Dublin man got to the hospital he was too weak to speak. “I was slowly loosing the feeling in my body. I couldn’t see my legs or arms and my face was gone numb. I really didn’t know if I was going to make it or not.”

Although the motive for this heinous attack is unknown police did give Browne a few possibilities. “First of all the cops thought it might have been an initiation thing by a gang- an initiation killing and then after that they said it was more likely a robbery but that the guy panicked.”

Browne felt his assailant had attacked before. “He aimed perfectly at my heart and stabbed it, he definitely did this before” said Browne.

Doctors performed immediate open-heart surgery on the footballer, which lasted four hours. “The stab wounds went through my left ventricle (the two lower chambers of the heart that receives blood from the atria) in my heart but luckily they managed to repair it in time and as a result I’m here now,” said Browne very thankfully.

While Browne was under the surgical knife, police looked up his cell phone and contacted his friend from Leitrim, Joe McManus. It was McManus who got in contact with one of Browne’s friends back in Dublin and they in turn broke the news of the attack to his parents and siblings.

Browne’s two sisters got on a plane and spent a week by his side while he was recuperating in intensive care. “My family have been wonderful through all this too, it wasn’t at all easy on them and Kevin and Carmel Higgins from Leitrim looked after my sisters by feeding them, putting them up and bring them back ad forth to the hospital every day.”

Browne, who is currently staying with friends in Flushing after coming out of hospital a week ago, has to spend the next six months taking it easy and recuperating. He won’t be able to travel back to Dublin for a month, where he will begin his second year of study in Maynooth University, Co. Kildare.

“I can’t physicaly work until after Christmas or play football till the New Year,” he explained.

Browne feels he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The attack has caused Browne to be more aware of his surroundings since it happened. “If I’m sitting in a car now I’ll make sure that the doors are locked around me and that sort of thing but hopefully that will go in time.” Browne said that his outlook on life has changed since the attack. “I will not take anything in life for granted anymore that’s for sure.”

Browne initially came to New York to visit with several of his friends in the Leitrim society (his dad is from Leitrim). After arriving he was asked to play football with the Dublin football club.

“Both the Dublin football team and several people from the Leitrim society and county itself have been so wonderful by showing me tremendous support and sending me cards. I was getting ten to twelve visitors a day while I was in hospital.” The staff and residence of the building where he worked also made a trip to Bellevue to check up on the charismatic Dublin man. Mass was said for Browne far and wide throughout New York.

At time of print, no one was arrested for the attempted murder. However, Browne expressed his concern over his attacker roaming the streets. “If this guy doesn’t get caught he will do it again.”

To help Browne with financial costs while he remains in New York to recover, the Dublin Football Club in New York have organized a fundraiser in the Heritage Bar, 960 McLean Avenue on Sunday, August 12. Music kicks off at 4 p.m. with DJ Aido and later in the evening Dawn and Friends will perform.

Fergal Mulvanny, chairman of the Dublin Football Club said, “We hope to have a good turnout on Sunday to help Dave get back on his feet and recover from this awful tragedy that occurred. Everyone is welcome.”

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