After being attacked by a knife-wielding criminal in a parking garage last month, a Louisville woman is addressing the harrowing incident for the first time.
In a statement to WAVE 3 News, the woman spoke about the violent encounter and her decision to use force to repeal the suspect.
“I fought off my attacker and thankfully was able to defend myself,” the victim said, referring to the Jan. 26 attack in a parking garage at 425 South Fifth Street. “I suffered significant physical injuries and I know that my attacker would have taken my life if given the chance.”
“Due to the ongoing prosecution, and because I am still attempting to heal both physically and emotionally from this ordeal, I will refrain from discussing the details of the attack,” she continued. “I never want another woman to be the victim of a violent crime such as this.”
Footage obtained by local media shows the suspect, identified as 27-year-old John Ganobcik, enter an elevator behind the woman. Once the doors open, he follows her out.
John Ganobcik, 27. (Photo: Wave3 News)
According to reports, Ganobcik chased her down and began assaulting her with a knife. The victim said he tried to force her into the passenger seat of the car. That’s when she drew her gun and pulled the trigger — however, it didn’t fire.
Ganobcik, seeing the gun, then punched her in the face and tried stabbing her with the knife. Luckily, the victim pulled the trigger once again, discharging the weapon and putting a bullet right into the neck of the suspect.
Injured and fearing for his life, Ganobcik fled the scene where a bystander saw the wounded suspect and called 911.
“This gentleman has been shot I’m calling 911,” the man said, clearly not knowing that Ganobcik, who has a criminal history and who was on probation at the time of the attack, had just tried to rob a woman.
“Are you right there with him now?” the dispatcher asked.
“I’m here with him now,” the man replied.
Authorities arrived on the scene and treated Ganobcik for his injuries. He was taken into custody following a stint at the hospital and now faces a number of charges: attempted murder, robbery and wanton endangerment.
Question: Had you found a man bleeding from the neck after being shot by a woman he just attempted to rob, murder — and, unlike the bystander in this story, you knew this just had happened — what would you do?
I f I knew the circumstances I’d have let the animal die.
The pistol did its job regardless of caliber it stop the the attack. what type or quality of ammo is the question. we will never know. As for the emergency number…911,191,101,119 etc I’ll get it right someday..
Upon finding the poor unfortunate, I would have hastened off to locate-purchase a chair; then to return to him, to watch closely and to sit comfortably while he bled out and expired.
Somebody get that lady a g42 with hst ammo
Misfire = 22lr likely bulk pack.if you gotta use 22lr buy match ammo for carry and keep gun clean. And like potato chips 22s must be fed in multiples until perp is prone
Id let the bastard die.
I would have also called 911. At this point he’s probably not a threat to anyone and killing him or anything other than calling 911 would be unjustified. I would also examine and try to treat his wound to at least make sure he wouldn’t bleed to death. It’s very possible that this might teach him the error of his ways and reform himself or at least stop attacking people. He’s lucky he’s not dead because then his fate would be sealed and he would spend eternity in Hell. Now at least he has a chance to repent and be forgiven by God. Plus I’ve read that killing someone is detrimental to the mental health of the killer, justified or not. I thank God I’ve never had to find out.
First remove any weapon near or on him, call 911, not sure about stopping the bleeding since you never know does he have AIDS, is he Hepatitis positive?
“It’s very possible that this might teach him the error of his ways and reform himself or at least stop attacking people”???
That is the dumbest statement I have ever heard. What rock have you been living under for all your life? I imagine if you had been the victim you would have turned the other cheek and let that animal Rape You and then Murder You. You are terribly misguided and prone to someday becoming a victim.
how is that a dumb statement. even an idiot should think “maybe I need to make some changes so I don’t take another bullet to the throat because this sucks”. and nobody said anything about turning another cheek either. might wanna put the bud light down and read, chief.
The only mistake she made was not finishing the job …
As I recall, that model of Beretta only comes in .22 and .25 caliber. I owned one about 50 yrs ago — good gun, but not a lot of power.
When using this type of pistol for defense, it’s better to keep shooting, since most small-caliber rounds are not going to stop the attack with only one shot.
It comes in 32 ACP as well.
I second that one.
I’d just shake him a little so the blood wouldn’t clot.
Then you would be guilty of murder.
Any gun is better than none, but this is why myself and my wife carry a Glock19 with 124grn Federal HST. That piece of crap would have went to the morgue
To stop the bleeding, I would apply firm steady pressure on the neck wound with both of my feet!
I suggest a good, tight tourniquet. Your feet might get fatigued!
Yep and keep the pressure applied about 20 minutes
Brain death is lives saved
If we show many more incidents of how guns save lives, instead of creating the fear of them, there might be a lot more understanding about why this country needs the second amendment even more now. We started with the gun to win our hard fought freedom and now it has become a way of life in this country. PEOPLE, NOT GUNS KILL. That perp used a knife, not a gun to commit a crime, but if she did not have a greater force to stop him, this story would have a more tragic ending. Guns are simply a more powerful and faster method of killing, but bombs, knives, blunt instruments and cars still kill more people than guns. We are a very open society and guns will always be a part of it. Take away guns and you take away the thing we cherish most, freedom.
Unfortunately, mainstream media treats these successful defense stories with benign neglect. You see them here, but most people do not know about them.
what would happen if a news channel linked this story? Once you get past the story a woman defending herself, there’s a bunch of Internet badasses talking about how they would finish the guy off. morons claim to be Patriots while acting like animals. you fuckers are the reason my second amendment is in danger. defend yourself, take the high road, and don’t be the thing you claim to want protection from.
Let him do this to your wife, daughter or mother and see how fast you change your tune.
We should consider castration laws, and start with bill clinton.
Sounds just dandy!
I WOULD DO THE RESPONSIBLE THING AND RUSH HOME TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE PARAMEDICS.
I would wait for Secretary of State Kerry to carefully, but with due diligence, determine the situation ….
I’d still call the police, but I’d tell them what I knew about the injured person’s involvement in the crime. I wouldn’t want to risk having this perpetrator harm somebody else that day because I ignored him.
I’m very conflicted on this. If she wasn’t injured, I’m sure I’d call for help. Where I doubt myself, and lets not split hairs, the ethical thing to do is render assistance anyway you can, is if she was injured. Obviously you help her first. But what then?
First of all good work and great gun control, neck shots are more often than not fatal. This should have been followed up by one to his forehead. This is a reason that a gun owner regularly trains, fires and cleans their firearm. What would I do? call 911 and hold him for the police I would also resist the urge to very, very tightly apply the tourniquet to his neck until he stopped robbing and trying to kill innocent women. This animal needs to be put away for life. He has already demonstrated his danger to society as he was currently on probation and has absolutely no respect for the law or other peoples lives
First I would like to give her a bery well done. Great job. I’m not going to criticize your choice of gun or caliber. At least yoj had one. Most women don’t. I would suggest one thing though, more trigger time. Get out and shoot more often. Besides the practice, cleaning your weapon afterwards would show you if it was gummed up. My Daughter likes pink guns, but any caliber and she’s just a little thing. As to the question, I would have let him bleed. The question said I’d known what happened, I would have made sure the woman was alright and let the guy lay there til an officer showed up to help the woman. I may have kicked him a few times if I were sure of no camera coverage.
First of all let me say she did an awesome job protecting herself from the low-life thug in the face of extreme duress having to endure the knife attack, the misfire of her weapon, and getting punched in her face. She somehow kept her cool and her will to survive prevailed ending the thug’s assault and putting him in jail where he belongs.
Not meaning to be critical here but if I boarded an elevator with just one other person, I wouldn’t want that person getting behind me in the elevator so that I couldn’t see what that person was doing. Also noting that the woman had the large purse on a strap over her right shoulder while carrying a package in her left hand would make it more cumbersome to get to her keys to unlock the car and obtain her weapon quickly and efficiently to end the assault sooner I’m hoping she had the gun checked out to determine the cause of the misfire so it won’t reoccur. Again, awesome job in surviving the attack and taking this creep off the streets!!
While it is true that the best caliper handgun is the one you have on hand – there are many center fire guns which are just as easy to conceal as the one this lady had. My wife carries a 9mm Sig 938 along with a spare mag. It is easily manageable and would be a far better choice for defensive purposes. Women don’t need “pink” guns or cute little baby guns. They need something with stopping power – something that will fire every time the trigger is pulled.
Well, almost as easy to conceal, maybe. But there’s no 9mm as small or light as that pocket pistol. One can get a really tiny .32 ACP, such as in a Seecamp, which is very reliable and pretty effective in Winchester Silver Tip Hollow Point (FWIW, Marshall & Sanow wrote that they hadn’t even intended to cover anything as light as .32 ACP, but they kept running into cases where WSTHP proved effective at one-shot stops).
Dave – most women don’t carry on their person. So a small gun is completely unnecessary. Light is good. But size really is irrelevant when yo uconsider the size purse that many women carry. Something like a G19 is infinitely better for the Off-Body carry that most women use.
Of course off body carry is usually inadvisable. So if you are going to go small, you really need to balance it with shootability. The seecamp is a terrible shooting gun. (I carried one for 16 years, I know). When the Ruger LCP came out I got one of those. It shot equally bad but was chambered in .380 and was actually lighter.
Now my pocket guns are a Kahr P380 and a G42. The P380 is nearly as small as the Ruger and Seecamp, but is MUCH MUCH more shootable. The G42 is a bit larger but is one of the best shooting small guns you can buy.
Don
Ask if she needs to shoot him again, a little lower this time. Go Girl!!
Tourniquet to stop the bleeding
Apply a torniquet to the neck!
I’d have to call Information to get the number for 911
May God bless, help, and keep that woman well.
I would have immediately dialed 9-1-uhh, uhh what’s that other number? Uuhh. I would have to Google that and get back to you.
Probably would have called the police and made sure he didn’t go anywhere… Without seeing the altercation or the woman explaining it I would have no opinion on who was the aggressor, had I seen the events I would definitely put pressure on the wound with my foot!
I would have pulled out my duct tape and then dropped trou, assumed the position and left a Cleveland Steamer on his face.
You win.
Winner of the Internets lol
But would you like to be the cleanup crew for that one?
I would certainly not have referred to this creature as a “gentleman”
All this great except the guy who called this in did not know this had just tried to rape a women and do her harm. It could have been someone who had been robbed. He did the right thing, let the court sort it out. Bottom Line, Don’t Jump to Conclusions.
My best advice to the lady is get a Fire Arm of lager caliber, At least a 9mm P, she should be able to manage it. 22 Cal pistols can certainly kill a person but you have to hit them in the right place. And she obviously did not have a lot of time. My thoughts go out to her, She came through with some luck, after doing the best she could. A lot of woman are not that lucky and are unarmed.
I sure would never refer to him as a “gentleman”
Tried to remove the bullet
Along with my personal carry pistol, I carry a knife.With this I would also attempt to remove the bullet!
Looks like a beretta bobcat probably. 22lr. which is bad about that. compare to centerfire. thankfully she pulled again and ignited. a beretta nano might be you best upgrade my wife carries on 9mm the size of a 380 size pistol very very accurate she also has the crimson trace laser
What would I do?
I am a surgeon.
I would have observed him for quite a while.
It probably was a bad primer, and took two pops from the striker/pin to detonate the primer. Or, if the gun hasn’t been fired in a while, perhaps oil emulsified around it and it took a second pull on the trigger to re-cock it and let the pin bust the primer. Either way, she did great with the exception of not making sure she had either top quality personal defense ammo, or making certain she had a clean working pistol. Needs to invest in a quality carry gun such as a Sig P250 subcompact, a Kimber Solo or kimber Micro-Pistol in 9MM. Then she needs to make sure she gets some Hornady critical defense + P ammo so she can make certain the only “click” she heard would have been after she emptied the first mag and dropped it in order to insert the next one and continue to empty that one into him. That way, after putting two magazine full of Hornady +P into the guy, it would have saved that passerby (who called 911) some money on his cell phone plan. But all things considered, she did a GREAT job.
Too bad she couldn’t have managed a few more rounds in to the perp. I’m glad she was able to withstand his attack and keep the presence to fire on him again. I’m sure she has children that kept her motivated. I would trade the gun or take it to a good gunsmith to determine why it did not fire the first time. But better to have a gun than not, it saved her life and caused her loved ones not to have to endure the pain and suffering of loosing her in to this violent attack.
Well done. One brave lady not loosing her head and able to fire a second time while being punched after being stab is not something most folks can endure. The fact that she did not empty the entire magazine is something that even Cops are not able to do. My hat to you and I hope you recover soon and are able to put this behind. This is a great lesson for all gun grabbers as most people that acquire guns legally know how to handle themselves respectfully.
I would’ve stood on his throat to stop the bleeding, F@#k that guy and any trash like him. Its cheaper to pay for a hole in the ground than to pay for his trials.
Why waste space when you can flush the ashes ~!
Buzzards gotta eat too, you know. Saves all the hassles, and he gets “back to nature” and serves a useful purpose later as fertilizer
My phone would have had a dead battery to answer that question!
Kudos to the woman for having the presence of mind to arm herself before needing a gun. I know some other web sites would edit out the following comment to perpetuate their own agenda, but I’m glad she was able to shoot the attacker and I’m sorry he lived. He’ll only get out to do it again, and maybe the next time his victim won’t be armed.
How many other woman had this savage already assualted or even murdered ~?
Well said SuperG.