The young women were on the ground, both bleeding badly after being stabbed by a masked robber near the University of Minneapolis campus.

One of the women had pulled off her shirt and was using it to stop the bleeding in the arm of her friend. Both were weak and could barely talk, according to Minneapolis Police Officer Craig Crisp.

"She was holding the shirt to her arm,’’ Crisp said. “It was soaked in blood.’’

Crisp, 40, began asking them what happened as he grabbed a tourniquet from a cargo pocket and quickly applied it to the arm of the girl, Alex Maple of Mundelein. He had just been trained on how to use one within the last year.

Crisp then rode in the ambulance with Maple, who managed to tell him about the attack. “She was speaking in a faint voice but she able to talk to me a little bit and give me a idea of what happened,’’ the officer said.

Maple, 21, and her friend were both listed in satisfactory condition this morning at Hennepin County Medical Center, according to a spokeswoman. The name of the friend, who was stabbed in the back, was not released.

The two share a townhouse northwest of the campus and describe each other on Facebook as best friends. They were walking home around 12:15 a.m. Monday when they passed a man in a ski mask, according to Minneapolis Police Sgt. Jesse Garcia.

Video surveillance captured the two as they passed the man walking the opposite direction on a bridge. “As soon as they walked past him, he looked back at them and then turned around and began following them,’’ Garcia said. “So they kind of knew that he was following them.’’

The two stopped for a Do Not Walk signal and he attacked using a butcher knife. “He grabbed one female around her chest area and put a knife to her throat and said, ‘Give me all your money,’’ said Garcia.

Her friend began screaming and gave him what little money she had, only a few dollars.

But the attacker “proceeded to stab her in the back,’’ Garcia said. The knife went between two ribs and punctured her lung, Garcia said.

He let her go and “slashed at the other female who was screaming,’’ Garcia said. “He severed her brachial artery, which is the main artery in your arm.

“Then came the real heroics,’’ Garcia said.

As she lay there “bleeding heavily,’’ there was “only so much time,’’ Garcia said. “The woman stabbed in the back pulled off her tank top and put it on her friend's arm."

Crisp got to the scene soon afterward and applied the tourniquet around her upper left arm. “Those two actions saved her life,’’ Garcia said.

Crisp said the friend "did a great job, absolutely. I mean she had a pretty bad injury, a partially collapsed lung. I believe it’s remarkable, to be honest with you. . . It was quick thinking, holding that T-shirt on her arm."

Crisp said he has been on the force for eight years and “this is the first time I’ve actually seen a victim with serious injuries helping another victim."

Richard Maple, Alex Maple’s grandfather, said during a telephone interview that Alex Maple was in surgery for about an hour Monday morning as doctors took a vein out of her leg to repair the artery near her elbow.

Despite some numbness in the wrist and fingers on her left hand, Maple said Alex Maple has been talking to family members, and doctors expect the feeling to eventually return to her hand as the nerves reconnect.

“She’s a strong gal,” Richard Maple said. “Everything is going as well as expected. There are a lot of crazy people in this world. I guess the only good thing is it could have been worse.”

Alex Maple’s parents got a call at about midnight on Monday morning, and they immediately drove up to Minnesota to be with their daughter, Richard Maple said.

Though he hasn’t yet spoken with her directly, Richard Maple said he has been in contact with Alex Maple’s father, and he said his granddaughter “seems to be getting a little better.”

Richard Maple said his granddaughter met the other woman while they were at the University of Minnesota.

Alex Maple brought her friend back home with her to Mundelein about a year ago, Richard Maple said, and he was struck by how close they were.

“They’re very good friends,” he said.

Alex Maple’s sister and brother both live in Minnesota, Richard Maple said. Her older sister just graduated from the university, and her brother is a freshman.

Garcia said the attacker is a heavy-set black man in his early 20s who is about 6 feet tall. He was wearing a black, knit mask and dark colored shoes, jacket and pants. A white T-shirt was hanging out the back of his jacket.

Garcia described it as a “real random attack,’’ and said no arrests have been made.



rsobol@tribune.com

Twitter:@RosemarySobol1

