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Harold Stemper stands by pool tables at Good Vibes Bar & Grill in Richardson, Sunday, October 4, 2026. The bar was hosting a benefit for the four survivors of a stabbing that occurred there earlier this year. Stemper was stabbed that night and underwent an operation to staple the bottom of his heart together.<\/p>\n
Anja Schlein\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Harold\u00a0Stemper\u2019s doctors call him the \u201cmiracle man.\u201d he and his wife, Linda Stemper, said his successful recovery from a stab wound to the chest nearly five months ago at Richardson\u2019s<\/a> Good Vibes Bar & Grill is a result of divine intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was all God,\u201d he told The Dallas Morning News on Sunday. \u201cHe wrapped his arms right around me and took care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Stemper\u2019s heart was severely damaged after he and three others were attacked during a May 6 mass stabbing at Good Vibes. The community gathered Sunday afternoon at the bar to celebrate the group\u2019s recovery and raise funds for two of the survivors.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Stemper was stabbed by Stephen Kwembe, 28, inside the bar before suffering a minor stroke and flatlining twice. He said he underwent an operation that night to staple the bottom of his heart together.<\/p>\n \u201cI may never get back to what I was before this\u2026 but I think if it happened [again] right now, I can\u2019t imagine I wouldn\u2019t jump off this chair and go try to help,\u201d Stemper said.<\/p>\n Richardson police<\/a> said Kwembe also stabbed Felicia Cansino, who was bartending at Good Vibes, along with Reuben Blackwell and Garrett Ledger. Kwembe was shot and killed outside the bar\u00a0by police after refusing repeated commands to drop the knife.<\/p>\n Related: ‘You will be different’: Woman stabbed seven times while bartending in Richardson reflects on recovery<\/a><\/p>\n Cansino was the only one who met Kwembe before the attack, when she said she refused to serve him in February after he threw his ID and cash at her. He stabbed her twice in the stomach, twice in the back and three times along her left hand and arm before Blackwell, Ledger and Stemper hopped over the bar to pull him off her.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In an August interview with The News, Cansino said she’d been attending physical therapy twice a week in an attempt to regain movement in parts of her left hand. The hardest part, she said, is healing from the mental trauma.<\/p>\n People dance as the band plays at Good Vibes Bar & Grill in Richardson, Texas, Sunday, October 4, 2026.The bar was hosting a benefit for the four survivors of a stabbing that occurred there earlier this year.<\/p>\n Anja Schlein\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Stemper said he lost peripheral vision on his right side and now has to wear two different pairs of glasses to see. As soon as he was able to walk,\u00a0Stemper said he returned to the bar because that’s where his people are.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s our place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Stemper said he still prays for the his attacker’s soul. He said he can\u2019t imagine what motivated Kwembe to think that hurting others was the answer.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related: Richardson police fatally shoot man who allegedly hurt 4 in knife attack at restaurant<\/a><\/p>\n Dispatch audio of the hours beforehand revealed Kwembe called a Garland police non-emergency line and said he was going to the bar to kill people<\/a> who had wronged him and anyone who tried to intervene.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope he finds peace wherever he\u2019s at,\u201d Stemper said. \u201cBecause he certainly didn\u2019t have it on his last night.\u201d<\/p>\n Good Vibes was busy Sunday afternoon as community members, loved ones and bar regulars chatted and laughed as a four-man band played slow country music on stage and the faint smell of cigarette smoke wafted through the air.<\/p>\n Attendees walked around sporting \u201cGood Vibes Strong\u201d T-shirts and placed blue and red paper tickets into cups to win guitars, coolers, kitchenware and more from the bar\u2019s raffle and silent auction. According to the event poster, all proceeds would go to Cansino and Blackwell.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The event also celebrated the six-year anniversary of the bar, located at 2121 Buckingham Drive.<\/p>\n Ledger, 43, of Garland, sat at the bar as\u00a0Stemper passed by and patted him on the shoulder.<\/p>\n Steven Edwards, left, and Garrett Ledger talk over drinks at Good Vibes Bar & Grill in Richardson, Sunday, October 4, 2026. Ledger was stabbed seven times the night of the attack. He said “it was surreal” when he returned to the bar after recovering from his injuries.<\/p>\n Anja Schlein\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Though he was stabbed seven times, all his operations were done within a night, Ledger said, and he was able to go home and recuperate. He said he already had a regular therapist, who helped him sort through the mental trauma.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first came back here, it was surreal. It was difficult,\u201d Ledger, who\u2019s been a patron at the bar since 2024, said. \u201cBut I was a lot more fortunate than some others who were involved.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Donna Searle and Michelle Lanahan were at the bar the night of the attack. Both said they\u2019re still in shock.<\/p>\n Related: Family looking for answers after young couple killed in Dallas shooting<\/a><\/p>\n Lanahan helped staunch the bleeding of Cansino and Ledger\u2019s wounds before paramedics arrived. She said she walked into the bar for months after the attack on high alert, always looking over her shoulder to make sure everything was alright. She keeps coming back, she said, because the bar feels like home.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like Cheers, where everyone knows your name,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Searle still gets spooked when people approach her from behind, but she said she believes the attack bonded everyone who was there that night.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt affected everybody differently even if they were involved in more serious ways than others,\u201d Ledger said as he looked at Lanahan sitting beside him.<\/p>\n More here: Inspirational stories<\/a><\/p>\n Cansino told The News in August she hopes to come back to the job she loves. She and Blackwell also attended the benefit but weren\u2019t available for an interview.<\/p>\n Stemper returned to work about a month ago and celebrated his 64th birthday last month. He\u2019s ready to leave the attack behind him, he said, and enjoy the life he was gifted.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want [this] to define me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The exterior of Good Vibes Bar & Grill in Richardson, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Mental health resources<\/p>\n The Here For Texas Mental Health Navigation Line connects North Texans with mental health resources customized to each caller at 972-525-8181 or HereForTexas.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\nThe National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has a 24-hour crisis hotline at 800-273-8255. A confidential online chat is also available at suicidepreventionlifeline.org<\/a>.
\nThe Crisis Text Line offers 24-hour support. Text \u201cHOME\u201d to 741741 or find more information at crisistextline.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harold Stemper stands by pool tables at Good Vibes Bar & Grill in Richardson, Sunday, October 4, 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[732,160,162,161,89275],"class_list":["post-457153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-article","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-tp-richardson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}