26-year-old Joel Veite had been helping out his friend’s window-cleaning business on July 29 last year when he confronted Southport killer Axel Rudakubana after seeing a “commotion”
A heroic dad-of-two has revealed the terrifying moment he came face to face with Southport killer Axel Rudakubana – just moments after carrying victims out.
26-year-old Joel Veite had been helping out his friend’s window-cleaning business on July 29 last year when he decided take a break in the hot weather. The personal trainer, along with his pal Marcin Tyjon, had stopped off to get a coffee when they returned to their car and drove down the road with “the music on and the windows down.”
However, Marcin soon noticed a “commotion” after yoga teacher Leanne Lucas, who had organised the Taylor Swift themed dance event in the Hart Space community centre, slummped against a car with a “big wound” on her shoulder. It was at this moment, Rudakubana, who was armed with a kitchen knife, was in the studio where 26 children aged between 6 and 11 had been dancing.
Joel jumped out of the van and went up to her, he told The Sun: “She just shouted, ‘He’s stabbing kids in there’. She pointed towards where the studio was. I didn’t understand what was going on but I saw a big wound on her shoulder and realised something serious was happening. She was on the phone to the police. She stood up and pointed to where it was and then collapsed on the floor. I picked up her phone and said to the police, ‘This woman has been hurt and you need to get here as fast as you can’.
The dad immediately ran towards the studio when a woman in a car started honking her horn multiple times. She had her daughter in the passenger seat, while there were four or five girls in the backseat. Joel was asked to help get one of the girls help. He revealed: “She just said to me, ‘Can you please get this girl out?’ I look at this poor girl and it’s heartbreaking. I’ve picked her up out of the car and I’m running and I’m shouting and screaming for help.”
Marcin had just started performing CPR on a girl, who he later discovered was Alice, one of the young girls who tragically died. Joel was helping with first-aid when he burst into the studio to see if there were any more victims. Moments later, he was confronted with Rudakubana. “I looked up and literally he’s come and circled round and looked at me”, Joel revealed. “He’s on the top of the landing, looking at me on the staircase, and he’s scurried back off into the room. He had his hood up and a big kitchen knife. I’m literally kind of frozen and I’m standing on the stairs and was like, ‘What the f*** do I do?’.
Joel found a bin to smash the glass door to make sure the killer could not lock the building shut. He quickly left the scene and went to a garage where he picked up anything he could use as a weapon. CCTV footage in court showed the moment Joel and three others walked towards the door, before a police patrol car and the first officer on the scene jumped out. Joel informed the officer what was happening but as he was the only cop with a baton, they had to briefly wait for a colleague with a taser.
After the officer turns up, Joel rescued another young girl, who he later found out was Bebe. “There’s a young girl on the floor and I pick her up, and I’m running as fast as I can towards the road, shouting for help, he said. “Thank God by this stage there’s paramedics there, ambulance service there, the fire service is there. A paramedic comes over straight away and starts to help.” He stayed with the young girl the whole time as officers told him to stay and help with first-aid. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar tragically died on July 29 last year following the stabbings. Sentencing the killer on January 23 to a minimum 52 years in jail, Judge Mr Justice Goose described his actions as “the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime”.
