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Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. On a warm summer day in 2021, a central Alberta family returned home from a camping trip. But something wasn't right. A gate was open and so were several windows in their home.

The teenage daughter and her mother waited outside while the father went into their house to check if everything was okay. I noticed a pair of shoes on the floor, right in front, right on our floor mat. And I looked at them and I'm thinking, I wonder if my son is home. So I called out his name. Nothing. And I called out his name again. And at that time, somebody responded to me.

There was a stranger in his home. And in the blink of an eye... Your life race is in front of you. It feels like you're in a movie or something and you're wondering what's going on and why is this happening to me? I'm Nancy Hixt, a senior crime reporter for Global News. Today on Crime Beat, I share one man's harrowing brush with death.

This is 1 minute and 41 seconds of terror. The man at the center of today's story is in his late 50s. And for privacy reasons, I'm not going to disclose his real identity. Instead, I'm going to call him John. I'm a businessman. I live in central Alberta. I have a wife and two kids and enjoy going camping on the weekends.

This is his first time doing a full interview. He's spoken to a couple of reporters in the past, but only to provide a few quotes and some context about the distressing experience. When he thinks back on it, John remembers wondering at the time if he would even be alive to tell this tale. It all started on Friday, July 30th, 2021, when John and his wife packed up for a camping trip.

Everything was normal. This was August long weekend coming up. We were looking forward to going away for the weekend with some friends. One of the first weekends our kids were going to actually stay at home by themselves. They were looking forward to it. My kids are 13 and 17 and they're very responsible kids. So we weren't worried about anything happening back since. And so, yeah, it was kind of a test for them. And it was a weekend away for me and my wife.

They live in Red Deer County, a rural area known for its scenic landscape, rolling hills, lakes, rivers, trails, and parks, with a mix of prairie fields and agricultural land.

Their home is on an acreage that has multiple outbuildings. There are similar properties around him, so neighbors are nearby. And it's just a few hours' drive to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, where one of John's favorite spots is located. Well, we like going up into the mountains and...

taking our quads and enjoying the weekend with our kids and our dogs. We do that and go to lakes, but mainly we go up to the mountains and go quadding.

Most of the area is crown land and includes a mix of provincial parks, protected areas and public land. It's backcountry, which means encountering wildlife is not uncommon. Where we go camping, we're advised that we need to take some sort of protection for the bears because there is bears there. There's lots of bears.

and either made bear spray or some sort of a shotgun or something to, you know, protect yourself in case the bears come. Especially, I have two dogs and they're a good attraction for bears. So we took our little shotgun with us with three shells. That was it. In the summer of 2021, John and his family were regulars in the area and enjoyed exploring the rugged landscape on their quads. ♪

Where we are is limited or no cell phone coverage and so you have to go to a specific location at the top of a mountain to actually get cell phone coverage. We're down by the river so we just have to get on the quads and go up to, you know, climb up the side of this mountain and watch your phone until you actually have a few bars and then

At that time, all your texts start coming through and you see what's happened or if you've missed stuff. On Friday evening, after the couple settled in, they made the trek to find cell service so they could check in with their kids. We had a couple texts from our kids to say that something was going on. Apparently, this person was pounding on the door wanting to get in.

And then he started looking around at the other vehicles and the stuff on our property. And he had said that he had lived and worked on the property six years ago with the previous owners and that he wanted in the house. Thank goodness we got good friends because they called our friends and they came and helped. And our one friend, she stayed with our kids.

and said everything was fine. So we talked about 10, 10.30 at night, Friday night. And she said, yeah, everything's fine. We're here. I've got a bat. So, you know, don't worry. John said he keeps a bat in the house in case of an intruder. So that's what the kids had found for added peace of mind. They also called the police. They took the guy away and everything should be fine. And, you know, she's just going to stay in case the guy comes back. And that was it.

On July 30th, 2021 at 8:58 p.m., RCMP responded to a report of a suspicious male wandering around the property. The complainant said the male was banging on the side of the house and scaring the occupants inside. So officers arrived on scene and located the offender. He said he was looking for a male and gave the name of the person he was looking for and that person was not living at that property.

That's veteran RCMP Corporal Susan Richter. I'm currently posted as a frontline supervisor. I have almost 20 years of service and that's all been mostly frontline uniform policing.

This story takes a lot of twists and turns, and Corporal Richter agreed to go through the police response step by step. So at that point, the person who called police did not want the offender charged for trespassing or for mischief or anything like that. He just wanted the person removed. So the offender was removed. He was brought into Red Deer, and he was warned not to go back to that property.

John said everything seemed to be under control. So we said, okay, we'll call you first thing in the morning. And we went back down to the camp and had fun and went to bed. The next morning, Saturday, July 31st, John and his wife again made the climb up to the top of the hill to cell service to do another check-in with their kids. As we're getting up there, the texts start coming through that there's something going on and, you know,

call home, blah, blah, blah. And so when we got to the top, we called home to find out that he had attempted, he had come back at about 4.30, 5 o'clock in the morning and he had attempted to break in our front door with our concrete planter and he damaged the door quite a bit, but the door jammed on the deadbolt and he couldn't break through it.

They called 911, of course, and the neighbor came and the friend came and they came within like 70, 10 minutes. Took about 15 minutes for the RCMP to arrive. And then once again, he was just sitting at our front door waiting for them and they arrested him and took him away again.

John had a lot of questions. He couldn't understand how this could happen a second time, less than 24 hours after the first incident. Well, when I called back to the RCMP in Black Falls Detachment to find out what was going on,

The member that I talked with explained to me that, "Oh, don't worry, the guy was just drunk. It's not targeted." But by that time, I had already heard through my friends that this guy used to live and work on the property six years ago, and it was targeted the house, but not me or my family.

Well, you run through a whole range of emotions because first, you know, somebody's trying to break into your house when you're not there. So you're helpless. Your kids are home and you don't know what to do. You're parked up in the mountains and you're running everything through your mind, what you should do, shouldn't do. And thank goodness my friend had his truck unhooked from his trailer. So we just went back to the camp and took his truck and my wife and I blasted home right away.

And so we got home, you know, like within an hour and a half. Corporal Richter said this time the intruder was charged.

So police arrived on scene again, found the male just sitting in a chair on the front porch. It was the same person. So they knew that he had been warned earlier that night. So he was arrested for mischief. He was taken into custody. And then he was again removed from the property.

Once police removed him, they returned him back to Red Deer and they released him on a document for court, which means he was given a court date and placed on legal conditions that he is not to be at that property. And if he is, that can be additional charges. Given the circumstances, police said even though the offender was facing charges, it wasn't unusual that he was released.

For something like this, where it's a single charge of mischief, we would not normally hold them for a hearing. Like we would only hold them for a hearing, for example, if they were breaching all kinds of probation conditions or if they had warrants for other matters or if there was a number of other charges. For a single count property offence, we would typically not hold them for a hearing.

They determined that there was no reason to think that he would not go to court or that he would not abide by those conditions that night. In the meantime, John and his wife arrived home from camping. The kids were quite shook up. The door was, you could not use the door. We had to use a different door in our house. It was heavily damaged. So I did a big crowbar and

you know, pound open the door so we could get in it. And then I went and fixed it, spent a couple hours fixing it, putting new door handle, new locks on it and locking it up. With the man now facing several criminal charges, John and his wife headed back to their campsite. This time, their daughter decided to go with them while their son stayed with a friend. We went back up to the mountains camping and we pretty much forgot about everything.

We had fun. We went boating and fishing and it was a beautiful August long weekend. So we pack up Monday. We didn't want to come back so we took our time and finally we got home about three o'clock Monday afternoon. But when they pulled into their yard, John said immediately something seemed off. I noticed that our fence was open and I go, "Oh, looks like someone's came in our yard."

So I left the motorhome running, told my wife and my daughter, "Stay here." Took the dogs and we went to the open fence and walked around the house. John scanned the property. As I walked around the house, I could tell that somebody had tried to open the windows. A couple of the basement windows were open, but the screens were still in. Another window on the main floor was closed, but the screen was out. And at that time, the shop next to us that's rented out to some of my friends, I saw them.

But John's friends told him they didn't notice anyone at the house. He couldn't see anyone in the yard. So if the intruder had returned, perhaps he was already gone. And, uh,

So I walk back around the house and I go into the motorhome and I tell my wife and my daughter that, oh, it looks like somebody came back. I'm going to go through the house and have a look and make sure nobody's there. So you guys stay here. And I took my shotgun out from above the bed. I took the trigger lock off, placed it on the mattress and took out the three shells that I had and put into the gun and put one in the chamber and put the safety on.

John said he didn't have any intention of using the gun. But at that moment, it provided him some comfort to have it with him. My feeling was I was just going to walk into the house on my own, but I remembered, oh, I've got my shotgun with me. So I went and got the shotgun as opposed to going in alone.

He double-checked to make sure the safety was on and then went inside. When I went to the front door and I unlocked it and came in, I noticed a pair of shoes on the floor, right in front, right on our floor mat. And I looked at them and I'm thinking, I wonder if my son is home. So I called out his name. Nothing. But then the basement door was open.

And my son is allergic to cats, so there's no way that he lives in the rooms in our basement. There's no way he would have had his door open ever to the basement because the cats would get in there. So it felt kind of funny. So I walked down the hall and turned the corner to go down our other hall, and I called out his name again, thinking that he might be in the bathroom having a shower, but the bathroom was open. And at that time, somebody responded to me.

He didn't recognize the voice. Then, from the end of the hall, John saw a stranger in his room. So there's someone laying in my bed. And at that time, he got out of the bed. And I'm about eight feet away from him. He's at the middle of the bed. And I'm kind of just at the doorway. And I tell him to get on the ground. And I'm screaming now. I'm screaming at him, hoping that someone can hear me.

because nobody knows that he's in the house. And then all of a sudden, a couple seconds later, my two friends show up beside behind me, the two that rent the shop, they were behind me. And prior to that, when they thought I said he's in the house,

One of them, the man, immediately called 911 to report that there was somebody in the house. That's when John said things turned from bad to worse very quickly. I was shouting at him to get onto the ground and pointing the gun at him. And he kind of came at me and charged at me. And I hit him with the butt of my gun a little bit and blood went across the bed.

But John said his warning fell on deaf ears.

And he came at me again and I kicked him back this time and I turned to look for the safety on the shotgun and that's when he got me in the side of the head with a baseball bat the first time. And at that time my head exploded and blood went everywhere. The lady that was still behind me went running outside screaming that he has a bat, he has a bat, he's beating me.

At that moment, he said all he could think of was trying to survive. I knew that I was badly hurt and I knew that if I, you know, fell or something, that he would have this done. So I proceeded to go back down the hallway as he's beaming my back and the back of my hand. I come around the corner down our hallway into our

family room and I needed to stop. He was hitting me so hard and I put my hand up which was holding the gun to deflect his blows and he hit my knuckle of my thumb and I dropped the shotgun and I just grabbed it with my other hand before it hit the ground and he proceeded to hit me a few more times on my back.

He managed to get near the door. And that's when he fell. And I put the shotgun over, put the shotgun across in front of me as he's still hitting me. And so I have to move the shotgun and he hits the shotgun once. And because the shotgun's across in front of me, I can see where the safety is. And I go to push it, but my thumb is broken and the safety has to be pushed the other way. So I flip the gun over upside down

And at that time, he hit the gun again. And I did not realize that he had actually broken the bat at that time. John said his friends came to his aid, but they were no match for the man wielding a bat. One had a rake and the other one had an expandable feather duster and they were trying to push him away from me.

And it was all at the same time that I had pushed the safety off and I lowered the gun down and I pointed it at him. John was fighting for his life. He was badly beaten and bleeding. John said the intruder wouldn't back down and he never imagined what happened next. And I was about two feet away from him on the ground and he was standing over top of me when I pulled the trigger.

The intruder was hit by a single shot to the chest. He fell to the ground, right, like he was standing over top of me and there was the door from the basement was there.

He fell against the door and slid down and his legs went between my legs because I was on the ground. My wife was there with my friends and they pulled me out of the house. And my head was, there was blood everywhere. You'll remember when the confrontation began minutes earlier, John's friends called the police. They called back a second time following the shooting. My head was quite like it was all smashed open.

My knuckle on my thumb was just demolished and my entire back was just black and blue bruises from the bat and my arm. When they pulled me out of the house, my head was bleeding profusely and my one friend

took his shirt off and put it on my ear because we didn't know what damage it was, but there was just blood passing out and squirting out everywhere. And so we needed to stop that. And then I sat down on the chair right at the front door and it was literally three feet from where the guy was laying. John said he was in shock. It all happened so quickly. Before the police had arrived, I had called my lawyer, my real estate lawyer,

to let her know what was going on. And she said she would take care of me. So as the member's holding my head, my phone goes off and she let me answer it. And it was a lawyer from an Edmonton law firm that handles homicide and instructed me on what to say and not to say. Corporal Richter confirmed it took officers nine minutes to arrive following the first call to 911.

So it came in as a 911 call of a break and enter in progress. And at the time there, they said there was no direct voice contact. So what that means to me from reading this dispatch information is that somebody said there's a break and enter happening. And then after that, that person was not responding to questions and not responding to the call taker.

So it was noted that there were sounds of an alarm in the background and someone could be heard yelling in the background. The additional call came in a second 911 call

and there was more information provided and I believe as the information unfolded rapidly, the information was that there was one person who was injured and one person who had been shot. So police then arrived on scene at 3:20, so nine minutes after the first call of the break and enter in progress.

From my overall understanding, they found the victim with some pretty serious injuries and they found a male deceased inside the house. And that was the deceased male was the offender who had been on the property earlier. Officers interviewed witnesses and John was given medical attention. He was also read his rights. A female member who appeared to be in charge came over and

instructed me that I was under arrest and held the towel against me on my head.

Corporal Richter said it was too early to determine if John would be charged. The entire incident needed to be investigated. At that point, we have no idea what has happened and who played what role. So it's normal to secure everybody, to separate everybody and start collecting evidence and start collecting witness accounts and figuring things out from there. So if somebody is involved in a shooting, we are going to have to

detain them until we know what their role is.

So the victim was brought to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries. And then the RCMP officers on scene continued the investigation. So that included speaking to all of the witnesses who were on scene. And then we do what we call, we secure the property and we usually get a search warrant to do our forensic exam. So the property would have been secured, meaning that a police officer stayed there

to make sure that nobody was going in or out and making sure that all of the evidence remained intact. And then we have our forensic identification section go in along with major crimes was brought in, our major crimes section, due to the severity of this incident because somebody was deceased as a result.

So they then conducted a very thorough physical examination of the scene. I believe like a blood forensics expert was brought in as well. So everything was examined, photographed, samples were taken for DNA and that sort of thing. John said his mind raced as he rode in the ambulance because he felt he did what he did to survive.

And now, he was facing serious criminal charges that in the worst case scenario could include a possible life sentence. I knew that if I didn't end it, I was going to die. I knew that, and I almost did. I knew that if I was charged with manslaughter, I would lose my job. It just happens. Nobody survives that in being charged, whether you're guilty or innocent. And I just had my lawyer tell me that I was going to be charged with manslaughter.

Your life races in front of you, flashes in front of you, not getting hit with a bat, but losing your livelihood is a double whammer. At the hospital, John was whisked into emergency. The emergency surgeon that was there was incredible. He came in, they put me on the operating table, the RCMP member was there, the surgeon,

The emergency surgeon says, "Is everybody here?" And they all looked around. There was like a dozen people in the room. And then he looks over at the RCMP officer and kind of waves his hand for him to get out of the operating room. And the RCMP officer goes to say something and the doctor goes, "Out! You can look through the door!" And so he, the RCMP officer left and looked through the window in the door. And the surgeon came down beside me and he said, "Okay, tell me what happened."

And so I told him real quickly all the way up to me pulling the trigger. And he said, no, that was enough. And he took great care of me. John got 25 stitches, most of them to his head. After that, he said police took his clothes. He assumed that was because he was under arrest. It feels like you're in a movie or something and you're wondering what's going on and why is this happening to me?

They gave me the little blue cotton things that you put over your shoes for my feet and they gave me a t-shirt that was really tight and they made me do the perp walk through the Red Deer Hospital until I got out through the emergency exit to the police car. First time in my life in the back of a police car.

And they proceeded to drive out to Black Falls. Black Falls is a town about a 20-minute drive north of Red Deer and is home to the RCMP detachment with jurisdiction over many small communities surrounding Red Deer, including where John lives. They book me in. They start asking me questions. As they're putting me in, I answer some questions, but I don't answer some of the other questions. You know, my name and stuff I answer, but anything to do with the incident, I didn't answer.

And then they put me in a cell. They gave me a big baby doll blanket and a mattress and that was it. And I got put in a cell at 8:30, 9 o'clock. 10:30 they came and started talking to me until about 12 they finished. And so I said nothing. My wife said nothing. John said he spent the next hour and a half awaiting his fate. And then at 1:30 in the morning,

They came and they said, I have a CPAP machine. I need my CPAP machine to sleep. And I told them to tell my wife to come and get it or bring it to me. And so at 1.30, they said that my wife is here. And I said, oh, she brought my CPAP machine? And they said, no. And I go, why? Well, I need my CPAP machine. And they said, no, we're releasing you. And I says, you're not charging me? And they said, no, we're not charging you yet. We're releasing you now.

And I got quite emotional because that was, I was told I wasn't going to be released and I was going to be charged. And so this meant that there was a bit of a delay in that process. So I went out front and yeah, my wife was there with her friend and it was 1.30 in the morning and my house was still a crime scene. So we couldn't come back here. So we went to our friend's place for the night.

Then, strangely, despite the serious possible criminal charges looming, life briefly returned to normal. You know, of course, all our friends come over. It's like four o'clock in the morning before we go to bed. And of course, everybody has to work the next morning, including me. So I call my assistant to have her come and pick me up at nine o'clock in the morning because I had a 1030 meeting scheduled.

in Calgary and I have no clothes. So I take my wife's debit card, I go and get some money off the debit card and I go to Costco and I buy shoes, socks, underwear, pants, t-shirt and a dress shirt and I go into the bathroom and I change and get into her car and we go to Calgary for my meeting.

By now, it was Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021. And although he was back to work, he said he maintained constant contact with his lawyer. The lawyer is trying to talk with the RCMP to find out what's going on. And the RCMP had developed a positive relationship with my wife. The members from K Division were extremely professional and great. I will give them that.

They talked with her and just let her know that, you know, what was going on. That, look, we're not charging your husband yet. We need to gather all the information and go through everything. And then the Crown and the police will make a decision. Then, Wednesday morning, an update. Apparently, they interviewed the offender's parents

and daughter. And I guess he had a 13-year-old daughter as well. And at that time, they did not want me to be charged because they knew the situation and they didn't want me to be charged. They knew apparently what their son was like. And that kind of hit me a little bit. That was pretty positive for me.

John said his legal advice was to not make any statement to police. But at that point, he shared with investigators details of a key piece of evidence in his possession. I said to them, oh, by the way, my daughter made an audio-video recording of the incident. It's a minute and 41 seconds, and it's pretty dramatic. And they said, oh, can you send that to me? And I said, no.

and can we hear it? And I said, yeah, you can hear it, but I'm not going to send it to you. So within an hour and a half, I had two, I had the supervisor from K Division and another detective sitting in our house listening to that audio video recording of me getting beat and the shot going off. In a minute and 41 seconds, I got hit at least 10 times in the head with a bat. I almost died.

John has since shared that video with me. It's one minute and 41 seconds of terror. The voice you're about to hear is John's daughter. She was in their motorhome recording when her dad entered the house. The teenager pointed her phone at their home and then panned to the yard. It's obvious John's daughter is very distraught by the situation and it's extremely disturbing to hear.

You can't see what's happening inside of the home, but you can hear screams and John yelling out, help me, help me, and his daughter crying. Help, he's got a bat. Oh my God.

One minute and 25 seconds into the video, a single shot is heard. And then, further screams for help.

Corporal Richter said the video provided important insight. It just corroborated the information that we were getting from the witnesses and from the scene.

I can't even imagine just the trauma of the event that he had gone through. So there's trauma, there's shock, there's adrenaline, all of that playing into. As well, all of the information they were gathering sounds like it was extremely consistent with what the victim ended up reporting to them later with the audio recordings we had from 9-1-1 and just all of the evidence that we were gathering as well as the forensic evidence on the scene.

everything was lining up. So those ongoing updates were provided to the Crown. Like what is the public interest in charging the gentleman who I consider to be the victim? And what's the likelihood of conviction? In this case, there was very strong evidence suggesting he did only what he needed to do to save his life or that of his family.

As the Crown and police worked through the evidence to make a final decision on the case, John released the audio and video to several members of the media, including Global News. I just knew I needed to get it out there to show that, you know, this really wasn't anything to do with me, anything to do with anything, and it was truly self-defense.

On August 6, 2021, five days after the fatal altercation, the RCMP made the announcement John was waiting for. I was not going to be charged. That was a unique circumstance. Those words meant a lot to John. It's something I never want to see or do again. I knew I was going to die unless I could end it.

Since then, he's taken a lot of time to reflect on what happened. Every detail has replayed in his mind, including how the intruder got into his house in the first place. He pulled the screen out and closed the window. And yes, it was 100% my fault. It's a window that I failed to secure before we left.

but it's extremely high off the ground. Not realizing that my gas meter is underneath this window and it made a perfect ladder for him to climb up and get in. Perfect ladder. And I didn't realize this until after when the police had done their fingerprinting and all that black

Stuff was all over the side of my house. You can see where he attempted to climb up and get in. He also wonders how the intruder was arrested, yet able to return to the property, ultimately leading to the fatal altercation. Here again is Corporal Susan Richter. This is such a rare and really horrific and extreme case.

When I was reviewing all the materials that I have access to before speaking with you, I was having that in the back of my mind. I was thinking, is there anything that we could have or should have done differently? And I don't want this to sound bad, but I really don't see it. Like we did, the officers responded in the way that we do for this kind of thing. And we only have certain authorities to do certain things.

So for this gentleman and for this offender and the things that happened, like he would have been released anyway. Like, unfortunately, I'm not seeing any way that this outcome could have been prevented.

At this point, you're likely wondering who was the offender. While John agreed to share his story with me, he asked for two things to protect his privacy and that I would not reveal the name of the intruder, which incidentally has never been made public. There's no benefit to it. There's only a downside to it. I just want

my story to be heard and he's gone but he still leaves behind a 13 year old daughter and his parents and they don't need to live with that. No, I am concerned about even this podcast and them hearing it but nobody knows who he was and so it's my story.

John was fine with speaking about the offender in generalities and about his history. The man was 38 years old when this happened. The police let on, they were very vague, but they did let on that he was known to them, that he was just released from jail, and that he had a drug history. They didn't get into details. They did mention something about him

I've confirmed he was well-known to police. His most recent conviction was for assault causing bodily harm following an incident in Red Deer in 2019.

He was sentenced to 210 days in jail, less 25 days for time already served, followed by 12 months probation and a five-year weapons ban. He was under probation when this incident occurred. He had multiple convictions for possession of a controlled substance, and sources told me he struggled with drug addiction to both crack and crystal meth.

And I know that there's a lot of frustration in terms of the information that the police can release and what we can't, but we are bound by privacy legislation. And even though the offender is deceased, he still has an expectation of privacy to certain things. So I really can't speak to certain things. Like I know there's,

your listeners are likely thinking like, was there, were there drugs involved? Was there mental health issues, anything like that? And I'm not able to confirm any of that because those would both be considered medical information that we just can't speak to. So unfortunately, and then things like motivation, we just, we just don't really know like the, we have observations from the officers on his behavior and things that he was saying and that sort of thing. But we will,

In his early 20s, this man was also convicted of robbery and sentenced to six months in jail.

Police told me they aren't sure why this individual kept returning to John's home. And I was able to confirm that there's no official record of this offender ever living there, though it is of course possible he knew the previous renters or owners.

There was mention that I believe the first time he was at the property, he said he was looking for somebody and he gave that person's name. And I believe it was the victim who said that that name was somebody who may have been a renter at the property five years earlier or several years earlier. That part, to my knowledge, was

wasn't confirmed. So we don't really know. And we don't know what his relationship is with that person, if he actually knew them or if he just heard of that name before. We don't know. John lives in the same house where this tragic incident happened. And he told me he still has a bat and a gun in his home for protection. He continues to suffer from the physical injuries he endured that day. My head still hurts.

I think my memory has been affected, my short-term memory. There's days when I wake up now and I can't remember if I had supper the night before or if I cooked supper. And so I got to go through the process and see if I did actually do a task. I need to write stuff down all the time now or I forget. And that's never been me before.

He's spent months and months in therapy, trying to deal with the trauma he experienced. Well, talking about it helps. And the reason it helps is, you know, you get this big feeling of guilt, you know, that, you know, you took somebody's life and...

You know, having people, when they hear the story and they say, oh no, you did good, you did great. You know, it doesn't make me feel proud, but it does give me a bit of, how can you say, acknowledges what I did was okay, yeah. As much as possible, he tries to focus on living his life without fear. I also realized that this is a unique situation that would probably never happen again in my life.

So you can't keep worrying about it. But the events of that fateful day in August of 2021 will forever be burned in his mind. And that comes with some heavy mental consequences. I have the depression. I have the moments where everything's fine and then all of a sudden, seconds later, I'm crying. You know, there's times when I tell a little story or somebody asks me about it and

I can tell it and everything's fine. And then there's times when I just can't tell it without being emotional. You know, I know it's changed me as a person drastically. I wish it had never happened in a million years. Thank you for joining me today. And a special thanks to John for allowing me to share his story.

Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez. Audio editing and sound design is by Rob Johnston. Special thanks to photographer-editor Danny Lantella for his work on this episode. And thanks to Chris Bassett, the VP of Network Content, Production and Distribution and Editorial Standards for Global News.

I would love to have you tell a friend about this podcast and you can help me share these important stories by rating and reviewing Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. You can find me on Twitter at Nancy Hixt, on Facebook at Nancy Hixt Crime Beat and Instagram at nancy.hixt. That's N-A-N-C-Y dot H-I-X-T. Thanks again for listening. Please join me next time.