Two good Samaritans who were stabbed while defending a blind man attacked on a Mission Valley sidewalk last week said they wouldn't hesitate to jump in and help if they had to do it all over again.
Sherlisse and Wayne Yehling are convinced had they not intervened, the 36-year-old transient now charged with felony assault would have beaten the blind man to death.
"He was an angry guy when he was beating on me," Wayne Yehling said. 'He hated me. He was just mad.
Sherlisse Yehling got the worst of it. She was twice stabbed in the back with a screwdriver. One gauge pierced a lung and it took 11 staples to close her head wound.
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"As I was sitting there waiting, I could feel this side ... every time I breathed in it started to ache," she said.
Wayne Yehling was stabbed with the same screwdriver in the shoulders and arm.
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The attack on the blind man, who at last check had survived surgery and remains in the hospital, interrupted the Yehlings Walk. They say they just started training for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk in San Diego. Sherlisse Yehling is a cancer survivor -- she had a double mastectomy in 2014.
The Yehlings don’t know what provoked the attacker, if anything. The blind man’s agony drew their attention.
"I kind of went at him," Wayne Yehling said. "I’m screaming, 'Hey, stop! Knock it off!'"
"He was coming at me ... and so my instinct was to turn. I turned all the way around. It felt like he was punching me in the head and in the back," Sherlisse Yehling said.
Despite their injuries, the Yehlings say they would do it again.
"There is no way to stand there and watch a guy getting beat like that. You can’t tell me you would just walk away, 'Excuse me! I’m going to call 911,'" Wayne Yehling said.
The suspect, identified only as a 36-year-old man, was taken into custody on the San Diego River trail near the incident. He surrendered to police, still in possession of the weapon he used in the attack.
It's been nearly a week and the Yehlings are still recovering.
"When I first get up in the morning, I’m very stiff," Sherlisse Yehling said. "Talking like this, I am trying to take very shallow breaths. Inhaling is still pretty painful."
Both say they're determined to be ready for the breast cancer walk in November.
