AN eye-witness has told how paramedics fought to save the life of a South Tyneside stabbing victim.
Steve Booth, who lives opposite the murder scene in Stanhope Road, South Shields, watched as a medical team tried to resuscitate 25-year-old David Arthur Charlton, who was stabbed to death after a night out with his girlfriend.
Mr Booth, a 36-year-old storeman, watched from his upstairs flat as paramedics tried to save the man’s life, as he lay on the pavement outside Nobles Amusements.
He said: “They put the lad on a stretcher and were banging on his chest and trying to bring him round. The team must have been working on him for something like 20 minutes, putting pressure on his chest for a long time.
“But I never saw the lad come round, and there was a huge pool of blood on the pavement after they took him away. There seemed to be a girl with him, who was crying as the parademics worked on the man.
“There were police officers and ambulances everywhere.”
The murder has shocked the community around Tyne Dock.
Mr Booth added: “It’s awful to think this happened around here.”
It is believed the murder victim and his partner lived in a flat off Stanhope Road.
Kyle Carr, 22, a kitchen porter, from Lemon Street, said: “I was disgusted when I heard what had happened and especially with this being so close to Christmas.
“By all accounts, he was a lovely lad, and some of my mates said he was drinking on the next table to them in the Last Orders pub, just before he was stabbed.”
Flowers were placed at the scene on Saturday afternoon.
One of the bouquets bore the words “Sleep tight, Chaz. Love Kelly”, but some women laying another floral tribute declined to comment on the tragedy.
At the Last Orders pub, where the stabbing victim is believed to have been drinking, staff said police were examining CCTV footage from the premises, but declined to comment further.
A police sniffer dog was deployed near the attack scene on Saturday afternoon, while an area near St Peter and St Paul’s RC Primary School, off Olive Street, remained cordoned off.