Aug. 25, 2005 -- -- If you saw Anthony Sukto, you wouldn't think he's any different from most little boys. He's just as playful and cheerful.

But many people call him a hero. Less than a year ago, Anthony's father stabbed his mother to death before the boy's eyes in their home in Tacoma, Wash. Then he turned the knife on Anthony.

The 8-year-old was stabbed six times -- slashed in the face, neck and chest, and cut twice in the liver. Despite bleeding profusely, he managed to call 911.

When emergency worker Kristin Woodrow answered the call, she heard the boy's plaintive cry: "Please, help me!"

He continued, "My daddy killed me with a knife and I'm gone. Can you please send the army men or the ambulance?"

Anthony gave an address, and then suddenly hung up. Woodrow called back. Anthony explained to her: "My daddy killed me with a butcher knife."

"How did that happen if you are talking to me?" Woodrow asked.

"My dad, he was killing my mom and then, my dad told me to go into the other bed," Anthony said. "Then he's like, 'You're next' and then he killed me. I'm still alive. I kind of survived."

Small Crucial Details

However, Anthony's ordeal was far from over. The street and house number he gave Woodrow didn't match, so she worked to get more information. She asked him what kind of car his father drove, and what color it was.

From the small, crucial details, authorities were able to locate Anthony -- and his father, Tony, who was still at the scene.

Lt. Mark Eakes, who was among the first to arrive, remembers seeing the boy. "He just was covered in blood -- his own blood. His face, his neck, his chest, his back -- everything you looked at was blood," Eakes said.

Anthony's father was apprehended. He told police he was "possessed" and that "spirits made him" do it. Police say Sukto's wife, Pranee, was a victim of domestic abuse.

Angels on His Shoulders

Today, Woodrow reflects with wonder on her conversation with the boy. "He was so calm, it was unreal," she told "Primetime" co-anchor John Quiñones. "I had to really work hard to confirm that what he was telling me was right."

"I can't imagine what he felt, I can't imagine the fear. But the fact he knew what to do, he knew how to do it. He's a hero," she said.

Anthony's aunt Nancy, with whom he now lives in Florida, agrees. "He's a special boy," she said.

But Anthony says he wasn't acting alone. "God helped me. He sent his angel," he told Quiñones. "The angel carried me to dial 911."

Anthony says that as he lay there bleeding, he actually heard a voice telling him to play dead until his father left the house. "I heard, 'I will save you,' " he told Quiñones.

Meanwhile, Nancy works to keep Anthony's memory of his mother alive. "I think about her a lot," Anthony told Quiñones.

He still has nightmares about the day his mom was killed, but today Anthony is recovering surprisingly well -- thanks to the love of his family and friends, and thanks to those "angels" who, he says, saved his life.

Tony Sukto is scheduled to go on trial on Sept. 15. He says he plans to plead not guilty.