SLIDELL, La. — A Slidell man says he thought he was going to bleed to death in his own car after being attacked during an attempted carjacking. He says he was trying to show kindness but says the suspects took advantage of that very kindness.
It was an average afternoon, and Anthony Ritter says he'd just gotten home on his bike, when all of a sudden, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office says 17-year-old Kemond Crawford appeared.
Ritter said, "Seemed like a nice, friendly young man." He went on to say, Crawford, "Says you mind if I borrow your bike to go to the corner, I'm like I'll do you one better, I'll take you for a ride."
Ritter says he didn't know Crawford but was happy to assist because he's always been that guy who just wants to lend a helping hand.
He says the teen asked to run home before they left, saying, "So I back out and I run around the corner to where we went in, and he peeks his head out, he peeks his head back, he peeks his head out, he peeks his head back," Crawford said. " I said it shouldn't be this complicated, I am just going to take you up the corner and then a friend of his comes with him. And so it changes from take to the corner, to can you take me to Waffle House."
Deputies say when Ritter opened his car doors to the Crawford and 18-year-old Ca’ryane Anderson, he had no way of knowing they'd try and hurt him.
Ritter said, "I start feeling jabbing into the back of my neck." He says he was stabbed four to five times, in that terrifying moment, someone was watching over him.
He said, "It was a set of unbelievable circumstances that I'm still here because after he's stabbing me he gets out of the back seat, the guy in the front freaks out because he is stabbing me. He gets out, they get into some sort of altercation. He tried to pull the key out of the ignition. Fortunately, the key was in the ignition but the car was not in park."
Ritter says at that moment he thought he was going to die, but he went into survival mode. He says he put his hand on his ear to stop the blood flow and drove himself to Slidell Memorial Hospital.
STPSO says deputies found the two men walking in the area where the attack happened.
After a brush with betrayal that nearly cost him his life, bandages now cover his ear and scars line his neck. Ritter's kindness now stands guard. He said, "I'll call the police for you, I'll call somebody else for you, but it's not going to be me, not anymore."
Because he's learned that kindness is a gift worth protecting, and from now on the 66-year-old will do just that.
The Sheriff's Office says Crawford and Anderson have been booked on one count each of Attempted Second Degree Murder and Attempted Carjacking.
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