SPECIAL TO VIEWChristina Brown, center, was honored June 19 by the Henderson City Council for coming to the aid of a neighbor during a domestic violence incident. From left are Councilman Jack Clark, Councilman Steve Kirk, Brown, Mayor James Gibson, Councilwoman Gerri Schroder and Councilman Andy Hafen.
Advertisement
Looking back on Dec. 20, 2006, Henderson resident Christina Brown was glad she was home recovering from mouth surgery when her neighbor was in trouble.
Brown was honored by the Henderson City Council on June 19 with the Citizen Heroism Award for her actions in assisting her neighbor, who had been stabbed in a domestic violence situation.
"I'd like you to move into my neighborhood," Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said during the meeting. "You have done something you thought you needed to do."
Brown was sitting at home on the December morning when she heard screaming from across the street. When she looked out the window, she saw someone who was upset running from the house.
Brown went outside and went to see if she could help. The family directed her inside the house. She saw a trail of blood on the floor.
"When I entered into the home, the poor woman was on her side in a pool of blood," she said.
Brown recalls seeing an older man standing in the kitchen, who was later identified as the stabbing victim's husband. The husband admitted to the crime and was arrested on charges of attempted murder, according to the police report and supplemental materials in the city council agenda.
While the boyfriend of the victim's daughter was on the phone with emergency services, Brown entered the kitchen to find towels to place pressure on the wound. She said she asked the victim's husband where the towels were located, and when he did not answer, Brown found the towels herself.
While Brown was assisting her neighbor, the husband's mother entered the house and moved to go after him.
"I stood in the middle and said, 'Ma'am you don't want to do this right now,'" she said.
Brown was left alone in the house and continued to speak with the victim to keep her conscious until the Henderson police arrived at the scene. From then, she stayed to give her statement.
Brown's mother, Elizabeth Campfield, who also lives with Brown, arrived at the house after her other daughter told her what was happening.
"I was running across the street, not thinking anything. None of it registered," Campfield said.
Campfield said the victim's husband had no emotion on his face. She stood outside with the rest of the family and the husband. Her most pressing thought was keeping the husband from re-entering the house.
"I knew as long as he didn't go back into the house, she (Brown) was OK. He was more interested in trying to take a walk," Campfield said.
Although Brown was in the house for part of the time with the man who confessed to stabbing his wife, she said she wasn't afraid.
"My thought was that I was helping her. He looked like he had nothing really in him. It didn't hit me -- that something that said be aware, be afraid. I basically went off of my gut instinct," she said.
Campfield said Henderson police arrived within three or four minutes of her entering the house. The scene was crazy, she said, with everyone acting angry and reacting to the situation.
"She was the only one calm throughout the whole thing. I was the crazy mom screaming, 'Don't make her talk, she's had surgery,' " Campfield said.
Campfield said she is proud of her daughter. Brown deserves the award, she said.
"It's good that she did this because these things need to be done. People need to recognize this," she said.
Brown said that before, she never really talked to her neighbor beyond "hello." They now talk every so often.
"She's doing really good. She's a fighter," Brown said.
Brown said she was shocked to be honored by the city.
"No one goes into that situation to get anything out of it. That's my thought with everything is, how can I help?" she said.
Archived Editions| Advertising | Contact The Staff
