Minister stabbed by meth user

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Minister Michael Shaver shows two knife wounds on his face. He received two deep gashes to his shoulder and two more to his stomach.

The director of Ray of Hope Street ministries was attacked at his Hobson Street mission home Friday evening by a knife-wielding drug user, a man residents of the home said had wondered aloud the night before what it would be like to kill someone.

“Our doors are staying open. We’re going to make a difference here,” said Michael Shaver of Ray of Hope Street Ministries as he clutched the bleeding knife wound to his throat minutes after being slashed and stabbed with a kitchen knife. “This isn’t going to stop us.”

His alleged attacker, David Anderson, 27, was taken into custody at the scene and will face aggravated assault and perhaps attempted murder charges. Shaver suffered slash and stab wounds to his neck, arm and chest and required numerous stitches.

“I barely got a hold of his arm and his neck to get him off me,” said Shaver, who required 63 stitches. “I took my shirt off and put it around my neck to try and stop the bleeding.”

The incident happened at the Ray of Hope mission house on Hobson Street around 8 p.m. Friday, within ear shot of high school graduation exercises being held two blocks away. The ministry aims to help those who have drug and alcohol dependence through a faith-based therapy.

Witnesses say Anderson attacked the victim without warning, appearing as if he had lost control.

“It looked like he was geeking on meth or something,” said one house resident, who noted Anderson had been staying at the mission for about three days.

Shaver said the incident began to unfold after he got off the phone with some of Anderson’s family and revealed to his attacker that he would apparently have to stay at the ministry house for a while since his family would not be coming to get him. At that point, several witnesses who were in the room said Anderson jumped up and began attacking the minister.

“At first it just looked like he was jumping on him, but when he turned sideways I could see blood coming from everywhere and realized he had a knife and was stabbing him,” the witness said. “It looked like he was trying to get at his face but Brother Shaver had his hands up trying to stop it.”

Those at the scene believe Anderson must have been coming off meth, pointing out he had slept and ate little during his stay at the home. Some also revealed he had made statements to the affect he would either like to kill someone or would like to know what it would be like to kill someone. At the time, the statements were chalked up to the psychotic ramblings of a person on meth.

“This is so weird, I mean, I slept in the same room as this guy,” said one of the witnesses, still dazed by the incident he had just seen.

The stabbing, however, did not shake the resolve of Shaver, who said he has seen improvements in the recovery of meth addicts since the doors of his ministry opened months ago.

“We’re seeing the relapse rate going down already so we’re not going to give up now,” Shaver said as paramedics tended to his wounds before rushing him to the hospital.