First Responders

“Victoria crescent incident. Avoid the area.” Tweet from Andre Thorpe, Jersey Resident One of the first emergency responders is Acting Inspector Mark Coxshall. He attempts to establish command and control. The sprawling and chaotic nature of the crime scene means it’s not clear who has done what. One witness, Martyn Maguire, is on his way to see his daughter’s new flat. She phones Martyn to say she thinks there’s been a stabbing. As he goes up to her flat, he notices medical staff doing compressions in order to keep a victim breathing. Being an off duty fire man, he offers help. The victim he attends to is making gurgling noises. He checks for a pulse and assesses the number and severity of the wounds. He finds nine stab wounds, most are probably fatal. He also finds the knife still stuck in the victim’s back. The knife is causing massive internal injuries. But removing it will create catastrophic bleeding. Martyn checks again for a pulse. The decision to leave the knife in or out has become academic. The man is dead. The male victim was Izabela’s father, Marek. Mark Coxshall hears the first death declared. This is now a murder enquiry. Martyn moves onto help the next victim. Baby Kacpar is not even two years old. He has been stabbed thirteen times. There is blood everywhere. He states the horrifically obvious. “I think the baby’s gone.” Mark realises he’s still not accounted for the attacker. Until he does, everyone, including the emergency staff attending, is in mortal danger. Martyn searches for survivors. In the small back bedroom he sees a man face down. This time, there’s movement. He races to rescue him. Covered in blood and stab wounds, he looks like the other victims. In fact, it’s Damian Rzeszowski. Martyn turns him over. Damian is half naked from the chest down. He’s still conscious and is moaning. As Damian moves, Martyn notices that Damian has slit his wrists. They do not look like defensive wounds. Martyn realises he may be attending to the killer. He asks Damian if there’s anybody else in the house. When he’s told there are six others, Martyn tells the policeman to continue searching for survivors. Four victims are taken to hospitals. All the survivors are female. Baby Kacper and his grandfather Marek are already dead. The only other survivor is the perpetrator. Damian is in a critical condition. Professionally, the emergency services treat him like the rest and do their very best to save his life. They dress his multiple self inflicted wounds. They chair lift him out and Martyn conveys his suspicion that Damian is the attacker to the police. Only Rzeszowski will survive.