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Mall Stabbing Victim: 'He Walked Right At Me'

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (WCCO) -- The nine people stabbed at Crossroads Mall in St. Cloud Saturday night are all expected to survive their injuries.

Three were hospitalized overnight.  Moments before being released, one of the victims spoke with WCCO's Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield in his hospital room.

After the Mall of America didn't have the video game he wanted, Ryan Schliep and his girlfriend hit up Crossroads Mall. While walking through an entrance, something caught his attention.

"He grabbed one of the girls and she dropped her phone and I looked at that and thought it was some buddies playing around," Schliep said.

Moments later when he was in the entryway, he realized this situation was serious.

"I was facing him head-on and he just walked right at me with one fist was coming up and I knew he was going to strike me and I braced myself for it and he did one swift motion to my head and I had a JT on. You could see where the blade went through the hat," Schliep said. "Pulled out the blade and I fell to the ground and he kept pushing for whatever his objective was."

Ryan says the man was wearing a security uniform.  A man police say stabbed seven other people too causing chaos outside.

Ryan and another victim tried to catch the man, but Ryan says his interaction was fast and quiet.

"Not a single word, not even like a grunt or like anything any emotion? Nope. He looked just blank in the eyes like he wasn't even there," Schliep said.

Ryan says several vendors closed their gates in fear. At Forever 21, he found help.

"Some random other citizen grabbed some clothing and tried to bandage me. The ambulance came and they rushed me and put me in with another individual who was stabbed," Schliep said.

After a night in the hospital, he's expected to be OK. A close call, nearly puncturing his brain.

"It went through the skin and hit my skull and kinda chipped it a little bit causing an air pocket to form on my skull," Schliep said.

And even though his wound is healing well, he says there's hurt on the inside.

"I'm pretty angry though at obviously the individual who did this, how the whole situation played out," Schliep said.

Ryan was released shortly after our interview to go home to Willmar.  He says he wanted to share his account because he wants people to know how serious this situation was.

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