Homeless man saves woman, is left to die in public view

Story found here

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A HEROIC homeless man stabbed after saving a New York woman from a knife-wielding attacker lay dying in a pool of blood for more than an hour as nearly 25 people indifferently strolled past him.

The New York Post said today some of the passersby paused to stare at Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax last Sunday and others leaned down to look at his face, a shocking surveillance video from the incident revealed.

He jumped to the aid of a woman attacked in the New York borough of Queens at 5.40am (local time) and was stabbed several times in the chest and collapsed as he chased the assailant. In the wake of the bloodshed, a man came out of a nearby building and chillingly took a mobile phone photo of the victim before leaving. In several instances, pairs of people gawked at Tale-Yax without doing anything. Later, another man stopped, leaned over and vigorously shook Tale-Yax's body. After lifting the victim's head and body to reveal a pool of blood, he also walked off.

Not until some 15 minutes after he was shaken by the pedestrian - more than an hour and 20 minutes after the victim collapsed - did firefighters finally arrive and discover that Tale-Yax, 31, was dead. Firefighters were responding to a 911 call of a non-life-threatening injury at 7.23am when they found his body. Cops said they received four 911 calls at around the time of the attack reporting a woman screaming, but found nothing. They received no other 911 calls.

"That's unacceptable," said a woman who lives in the building near where Tale-Yax was killed. "How can you be so heartless? If he's dying, he might've been saved. If you don't want to get involved, call 911 and leave."

Another area resident, Ramon Bellasco, 46, said: "It's no good. They needed to help and call the police. I don't get it."

No arrests were made, and police were unable to identify the woman Tale-Yax was trying to help.

Is is that hard to simply call 911? Most sickening is the guy who took a photo. The very thought of taking photos of someone's personal tragedy is disgusting to me. And in the time that guy took a photo, he could have dialed the police.

How sad. Really, it is. A poor guy jumps to the aid of a complete stranger and saves her, only to be left dying on the street like some sort of carnival sideshow.

Ok, I'm a New Yorker, so I'll admit I'm not the best when it comes to helping the homeless or people I don't know.

But seriously guys, seriously? He BLEEDS TO DEATH and you can't even call emergency services? No body? Cal the police and go, "Uh, I think theres a dead guy on the sidewalk." and then go? Seriously? Jeez. He could have still been alive regardless!

Where did the attacked woman go? What did *she* do?

...She left, didn't she. *sigh*

NEW YORK NEW YORK
IT'S A HELL OF A TOWN
THE BRONX IS UP
HOBOS BLEED ON THE GROUND

fuck new york

Jesus. wrote:

Where did the attacked woman go? What did *she* do?

...She left, didn't she. *sigh*

Can't blame her for running off I suppose, but you think maybe she would have worried about the guy that saved her and rung the police to alert them.

Raine wrote:

Jesus. wrote:

Where did the attacked woman go? What did *she* do?

...She left, didn't she. *sigh*

Can't blame her for running off I suppose, but you think maybe she would have worried about the guy that saved her and rung the police to alert them.

True, I mean she was likely quite freaked out, but if he was stabbed saving her you think she'd notice? Wasn't he stabbed when saving her? He should have been right in front of her in plain view.

Then again this is new york. if he had survived and turned around to see if shes ok, she might have just maced him. :/

I'm going to assume that she was too busy fleeing for her life to look back and see what happened. In her case, she probably did the smart thing and didn't look back.

Everyone else, though? No fucking excuse.

Bystander effect still in play...marvelous. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This just reminds me of Kitty Genovese. D:

So, really, seriously, people? SERIOUSLY, NEW YORK? For fuck's sake!

New York is basically an overpopulated, stinking, nigh-Orwellian hellhole where people are too afraid of each other and Air Force One to do anything respectable anymore.

Penguin wrote:

New York is basically an overpopulated, stinking, nigh-Orwellian hellhole where people are too afraid of each other and Air Force One to do anything respectable anymore.

NUH UH.

It's not usually that smelly. Depends on where you are.

The only man with a pair was left to die. Way to go New York. And you wonder why people think you're all assholes.

New York has greatly improved. Wasn't so long ago somebody would have taken the homeless guy's shoes.

Is it possible that people could have been 1). afraid of being sued for attempting to aid the man if they had no medical training or 2). didn't want to be responsible for his medical bills since he presumably had no insurance?

Yeah, I'm reaching for excuses here.

This is disgusting. How some people behave I am ashamed to call myself Human. Have they no compassion whatsoever? A few years ago I met a homeless person and went to the nearest chippie and got her a decent meal, along with a pack of six cheese and onion pasties and a bottle of coke, I offered to buy her a sleeping bag but she refused. I had enough cash and I felt it was the least I could do. She cried because she never expected anyone to show that kind of compassion, most people walked by her day after day. I didn't, and still don't understand how anyone could be so callous... but THAT STORY is a whole new level of callous, that person was dying. Loads of people look down on homeless people but... one day any of us could end up in that situation through no fault of our own. The homeless are just human beings who have had incredibly bad luck, how can anyone not see that... how could anyone just TAKE PICS and not call an ambulance. This makes me feel rather ill.

Diffusion of responsibility.

That doesn't explain the video taking or the person who lifted the guy and then wandered off, though. What the fucking fuck.

This is terrible, no doubt, and those who noticed that he was bleeding out and did nothing should be ashamed. The guy who turned him over should definitely have called it in, even if Tale-Yax was already dead. [His body language as he walked away looked way too nonchalant for him to have been freaked out by it.]

Having seen the video, however, I don't know how obvious it was to passersby that he was bleeding. If they didn't see the blood, they may have simply thought he was passed out drunk - not necessarily an outrageous conclusion at dawn on a Sunday.

Quote :

[His body language as he walked away looked way too nonchalant for him to have been freaked out by it.]

"Holy shit, another bleedin' homeless guy? Dat's like the fiff one dis week. 'Ey buddy, you okay?"

*Notices the time on the fake, plastic Rolex the homeless guy has*

"Fuck me, is dat da right time?! I gotta haul ass, take care buddy!"

I don't mean to come off heartless, but if I recall correctly there has been at least one other instance where something like this happened in a big city.
It's mob mentality, sort of; 'Oh, I'm sure someone else will get him. I just want to get out of here...'
But that doesn't mean it's not sickening. I mean, seriously, 9-1-1. Three finger presses and thirty seconds to save a hero's life? ALL TOO MUCH FOR AN INNOCENT BYSTANDER. Riiight...

lurkar wrote:

I don't mean to come off heartless, but if I recall correctly there has been at least one other instance where something like this happened in a big city.

Kitty Genovese.

See also: Rorschach.

See also: the "I'm going to get sued if I do anything" effect. Dunno if that has an actual name for it, though.

Aggie wrote:

See also: the "I'm going to get sued if I do anything" effect. Dunno if that has an actual name for it, though.

Lack of knowledge of Good Samaritan laws?

How on earth could someone get sued for dialing 911 to help someone they thought needed it? How on earth could someone think they'd get sued for it?

No seriously, someone please explain this to the European.

Adagio wrote:

How on earth could someone get sued for dialing 911 to help someone they thought needed it? How on earth could someone think they'd get sued for it?

There have been cases in the US where people have tried to assist other people only to get sued for it. A rather extreme example is the case where a woman stopped a toddler from wandering into the ocean (lake?) when his father wasn't paying attention to him, warning him that the child could drown. Said father did not heed the warning and lo and behold, the toddler fell in and drowned. Guess who got blamed (i.e. sued) for it? As I recall, the prosecution didn't want to allow the woman to be allowed to state that she couldn't swim as they thought it would be 'irrelevant' to the case against her.

If I had more time I'm sure I could find more (and less tragic) examples but this sort of thing is common in the US: robbers can sue homeowners of the homes they're breaking into if they get injured either during the break-in or while the homeowner is defending themself, their family and their home. Don't even get me started on how weaselly people get with minor vehicular accidents.

There are also (relatively rare) cases of asshole 911 operators tracing a phone call if police are called to a scene and they find nothing. The person that called could be brought up on charges of wasting the time of the 911 operators and police. This sort of thing is utterly ridiculous but it does happen. That doesn't even get into the fact that 911 operators will ask the caller's name and/or address; sad fact is that most people cannot be bothered to risk going through all that potential shit.

Well think abour it this way, if you believe in a after life and aren't Jack Chick then this guy is happily eating at the Heaven Buffet and playing golf with (insert saint of choice here)

But really, this is fucking sad. My teacher in high school once told me that no one in New York will blink an eye at you running down the street nude with blood covering you and I'm starting to think that he was right.

Aggie wrote:

robbers can sue homeowners of the homes they're breaking into if they get injured either during the break-in or while the homeowner is defending themself, their family and their home.

But—but—what?!

This doesn't even make sense. There's a law (or maybe it's jurisprudence; I can't remember properly) in the US that states that nobody can benefit from a crime they committed. (IIRC, it was to prevent a guy from inheriting an estate or whatever after he'd murdured his gradfather to get it.) Since the person breaking and entering was committing a crime, that alone should ensure that they can't sue the homeowner. Never mind the fact that there are self-defense laws in the US which allow the use of reasonable force in defense of oneself or others, and duty to retreat doesn't apply if you're already in your own home.