Child to 911 dispatcher: 'My daddy killed me with a butcher knife'
Thursday, October 28, 2004 Posted: 8:02 PM EDT (0002 GMT)
TACOMA, Washington (AP) -- A seriously wounded 8-year-old boy calmly described his father's deadly knife rampage during a call for help to 911. "My daddy killed me with a knife and I'm gone," the boy told a dispatcher. "Can you please send the Army men or the ambulance?"
The soft-spoken child gave a wrong address and then hung up. But a second dispatcher called back, keeping him on the line while a frantic search was under way.
On Wednesday, authorities released the remarkable tape of Anthony Sukto's calm courage during the October 22 ordeal, and the frantic efforts to find him.
"What's going on there?" asked dispatcher Kristine Woodrow.
"My daddy killed me with a butcher knife," Anthony said.
"How did that happen if you are talking to me?" Woodrow asked.
"Because," Anthony answered. "I don't know what happened, but something. He grabbed knives. I woke up. My dad, he was killing my mom and then my, my, my dad told me to go onto the other bed and then he's like, 'You're next,' and then he killed me. I'm still alive. I kind of survived."
Woodrow said she wasn't sure if what she was hearing was for real.
"He was extremely calm," she recalled Wednesday. "It wasn't a typical response from someone who had just witnessed what he witnessed or had just been attacked."
Woodrow said while police and firefighters tried to find where Anthony was calling from, she tried to keep him on the phone.
"Are you bleeding, Anthony?" she asked. "Uh huh," he answered.
"Where are you bleeding from?" she asked. "From my stomach," he said.
"Are you there by yourself?" Woodrow asked. "No. My mom is already dead and I am the only survivor," he said.
Authorities found the home minutes later when the child's father, Tony Sukto, 36, flagged down a fire truck. Sukto has been charged with the murder of his wife, Pranee, 39, and attempted murder of his son, and has pleaded innocent.
Anthony underwent surgery for lacerations to his liver and is recovering.
Woodrow said she wants to visit the little boy to tell him something she didn't get a chance to before.
"I want to tell him how amazing he is," she said. "I don't think he knows that."
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