The pair’s arrival startled the alleged attacker, who ran off as Bennett wound down her window to ask the stricken man if he was all right.
“He was calling out for help. We were pretty scared. I reached to the back and opened the back passenger door, and asked if he could make it to the truck and jump in, which he proceeded to do.”
As Lama drove to the still open Crates and Cues Bar for help, the injured man kept saying “it isn’t good, it isn’t good”, Bennett said.
It wasn’t till they got the man out of the truck they realised the seriousness of his injuries.
“He’d been stabbed in his left side and also under his ribs … and his hand above his wrist was all sliced. It was just really terrible.”
The Crates and Cues duty manager ran out with something for Bennett to hold against the man’s wound, with the mother-of-seven and grandmother-of-12 doing her best to keep the man calm as he asked his helpers to call his wife.
“I told him to just breathe, and the police will be here soon. He was in shock.”
The man, who she described as of Middle Eastern ethnicity and aged in about his 40s, told them he didn’t know his attacker.
“It seems that he’d missed the last bus and he didn’t realise it. I think he’d just finished work.”
After the incident, Manurewa-Papakura ward councillor Daniel Newman told the Herald he not only wanted to check on the victim, but also “meet and congratulate” those who intervened.
“I’m bloody proud of anybody who’s got the steel and the balls to go and assist somebody who’s in trouble, and doing so in a way which is hopefully going to be a circuit-breaker, hopefully a safe circuit-breaker.
“Somebody might be alive today because somebody decided to give a damn.”
Immediately after the incident, Manurewa-Papakura ward councillor Daniel Newman said he was “bloody proud” of those who intervened and wanted to thank them in person. Photo / Annaleise Shortland
Although he’d not been able to speak with the victim, he’d tracked down Bennett and Lama and – with fellow Manurewa-Papakura ward councillor Matt Winiata and others – gave the couple a gift of food, treats and vouchers this week.
The gesture was “really lovely”, Bennett said.
“We were quite surprised, but it was really lovely and I’m very grateful and thankful.”
There had been other kindnesses, including a colleague of Lama’s at youth justice residence Whakatakapokai cleaning his truck’s bloodied back seat.
Neither she nor Lama, 59, saw themselves as heroes, the 50-year-old said.
“We just hopefully saved somebody’s life … yeah [there was risk], but we just thought, this guy needs help.
“I get told that most people would just look away, but I just really hope that more people would [help]. If I’m in that predicament, I’d love for someone to intervene, or try and intervene in a safe way.”
The injured man was taken to hospital with serious injuries after the stabbing incident on Wednesday last week. Photo / NZME
The injured man was taken by Hato Hone St John Ambulance to Middlemore Hospital in a serious condition after the incident, and the couple hadn’t been updated on his recovery, Bennett said.
But he was in their thoughts, she said.
“I’m just really happy that he’s safe and alive.”
A 24-year-old man caught by police near the scene of the attack soon after the incident has been charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Police said the alleged offender also unsuccessfully tried to steal the person’s backpack.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.