A bar manager rescued a young boy from a man on a machete rampage before chasing the suspect and trying to save others.
Carl Baines, assistant manager of the famous Arkles Pub on the corner of Anfield Road and Arkles Lane, Anfield, was collecting glasses when he saw a heavy-set man carrying a large machete outside at around 5.30pm on Thursday night (August 11). The man, believed to have been suffering severe mental health problems, was at the beginning of a horrific rampage which left four people in hospital with serious injuries including three men aged 20, 40 and 48 and a 62-year-old woman.
The child, aged eight, was cycling home when he was attacked along Arkles Lane. He ducked at the last moment and escaped with a small graze where the machete nicked the back of his head.
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Dad-of-three Carl, 33, also described screaming at a man sitting at a bus stop on Utting Avenue to warn him of the approaching danger only to realise the man was listening to music on his earphones and could not hear his cries.
Carl, originally from Anfield but who now lives in Waterloo, told the ECHO: "I was just collecting a glass off a table, and I saw him walking past the pub with the machete, he was swinging it round and shouting.
"I ran to slam the doors shut and I saw [the little boy] running so I just grabbed him and threw him in the pub.
Carl said he shouted to a colleague to call the police and ran around to the pub's second entrance. He says he was joined by another local man and the pair ran down Arkles Lane screaming at the machete wielding man, in an attempt to distract him.
However what happened next resembled a scene from a horror film. Carl said: "There was a poor lad at the bus stop. The lad had his earphones in and he couldn't hear me and this other fella trying to shout him. So he's just took three or four swings at him and caught him all on his arm.
"I'm still screaming, trying to run in front of him and warn people. I saw a lad on a bike, so I told him to fly down and tell everyone to close their shops and their doors and that. And that's when he's turned onto Ince Avenue and done that to [the woman]."
Carl said the man entered the woman's house for less than a minute and then "booted her out the door". He said: "She had cuts, she had bad cuts on her arms and that. I took my work shirt off and wrapped it around her arms to stop the bleeding. She had three or four big cuts on her arms and one on her head I think."
After the emergency services took over, Carl asked a colleague to provide him a new shirt and walked back to the Arkles, where he finished his shift. He told the ECHO: "I was a bit shook up like. I got back to the pub and obviously everything has gone on. I had to go and clean myself up because I was covered in blood.
"I checked the CCTV to see what had gone on and I just thought, he's tried to kill an eight-year-old lad. It's just grazed the back of his head but the amount of force he's put into the swing, it would have killed him outright."
Carl said he has seen a lot in his 17 years working in pubs, but this incident was "one of the most horrible things I have seen". He said: "When it's all going on you just do your thing and try and help. It was more when I got back and I seen how close it was to killing the kid it hit me. It was inches away."
Earlier today the boy's mum told the ECHO about the moment she found out what had happened. She said: "I opened the door and a few people from the pub was there, saying a man has just swung a machete at the baby. I could not believe it, I was like 'a machete? He's eight-years-old'.
"He was just sobbing, sobbing and he looked grey. He's very active, he's always out on his bike with his mates but now he doesn't want to go out no more. He would not sleep last night, he was just saying 'Is the man in jail now mum?'. He hasn't left my side."
Merseyside Police said the suspect was arrested in Stanley Park on suspicion of attempted murder, and today a 33-year-old man has been detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act. The ECHO understands he lives in the local area and has been described as a "big conspiracy theorist" and a "very quiet man" who kept to himself.
A neighbour of the man understood to be in custody said she saw police entering his house late last night. She said: "He was a very quiet man. He's lived here a while, it was before lockdown he moved in. I only knew him to say hello to really. He was always very polite.
"He was always on his own. I think he used to fix bikes, that was his business. When I heard it was him I didn't believe it, I said 'no not him, it can't be'. He was a nice neighbour, he would do the weeding on his front and then offer to do his neighbour's .
"He was well into his conspiracy theories, he loved all that. I think he believed all that. He listened to things on the radio and the internet, weird stuff."
Merseyside Police confirmed said the force received its first call at 5.30pm from a member of the public, which reported a man with a machete walking along Priory Road and Utting Avenue shouting at people. A man is understood to have been attacked at a bus stop on Utting Avenue.
The final victim, the 62-year-old woman, was seen emerging "in a pool of blood" after the man entered her house. She was helped by members of the public before being rushed to hospital.
A blood-stained machete with the message "make love not war" scrawled onto it was found abandoned in Stanley Park.
Detective Inspector Neil Dillon, of Merseyside Police, said: “Our investigation is ongoing. While we understand how worrying incidents like this are we don’t believe that it was terror-related and a man is currently detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act as we continue with the investigation.
"I would ask for anyone who was in the area of Priory Road or Ince Avenue yesterday who saw or heard anything and hasn’t already spoken to police to come forward as a matter of urgency."
Anyone with information is asked to DM @MerPolCC or @CrimestoppersUK on 0800 555 111 quoting reference 22000587067.
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