One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
LA Times Writer Was 'Sick to My Stomach' After Seeing Fatal Metro Stabbing
When a man was stabbed recently on the Metro, it so happened that standing five feet away from him was Todd Martens, a music reporter with the LA Times.
Martens has recounted what he saw to numerous media outlets already, including the LA Times. The victim and attacker, he said, were engaged in a shouting match when the victim grabbed a chain and began swinging it over his head. That's when the attacker pulled out a knife and stabbed his adversary, later identified as 59-year-old Jesse Garay of North Hollywood, in the chest.
From there, Garay lay dying as passengers evacuated the train as soon as possible.
So what happens to someone like Martens after they see a murder, and how are the events skewed by reporters? Martens provides more details over at his tumblr, including his ensuing paranoia about having stepped in blood, his nausea, and his belief that two girls who have been widely accused of helping the attacker to flee were "simply trying to keep the assailant from shifting moods, focusing his attention away from what just happened," he writes.
Here's more from his post:
I have never, at least knowingly, been less than five feet away from someone with the capacity to stab another human being. I was crouching on the seat, and I was getting sick to my stomach. An elderly woman put her hand on my shoulder and said, quietly, ‘Are you ok?’ I said, ‘I think so.’ I knew the skateboarder was armed, dangerous and clearly emotionally unstable. He was now begging passengers to back up what would be his self-defense claim to police. I was trying not to look at him, hoping as long as he was freaking out about his impending capture that he would not do anything rash. This is when two girls - late teens or early 20s - started telling the attacker to “keep it together.” They suggested he change his shirt. The man had a shirt, blue, shrink-wrapped in his bag, and one of the girls said, “You don’t want to be caught in these clothes,” motioning to the shirt he was wearing.
I have been asked by reporters multiple variations of the following question: “So they were advising him to avoid capture?” I do not know.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
