Wife’s blood-curdling screams as soldier stabbed by masked attacker

Motive remains unknown as detectives try to piece together terrible events that unfolded on Tuesday night

The doorbell cameras captured the piercing screams.
“Get off him,” yelled the woman, followed by “What are you doing? What the f— are you doing?”
On the ground lay her husband, blood soaking through his camouflage uniform. Towering over him stood his attacker, his face covered by a balaclava and thought to be wielding a knife in each hand; each of the blades about 10 inches long.
The soldier’s wife, displaying remarkable courage and a disregard for her own safety, tried to pull the knifeman away. She screamed at the attacker and called on passersby to intervene. The attacker, according to one eyewitness account, ran his finger across the blade of his knife, licked it and then turned, got back on his moped and sped off.
The 30-second attack was of such ferocity that the soldier, believed to be an experienced, senior officer, survived only by a miracle and the bravery of his wife
“Stab wounds covered his body,” said one witness, who had rushed to the officer’s rescue, “Blood was everywhere as I tried to apply pressure to his wounds until the police arrived.” The victim had been stabbed about a dozen times, with deep cuts to his face and his left leg.
The witness, who tended to the prone figure, was adamant the attacker had come seeking out a military target. “The guy was looking for a soldier to attack. When the guy’s wife came out and started trying to pull the guy off he didn’t even try to hurt her. He only had his sights set on hurting a British soldier.”
The attack had happened at about 5.55pm on Tuesday evening outside Ministry of Defence owned homes in Sally Port Gardens, about 100 yards from Brompton Barracks, home to 1 Royal School of Military Engineers and a stone’s throw from the historic dockyard in Chatham in Kent.
Lt Col Mark Teeton, a senior commander on the base, had been on his way home after a day’s work at the nearby barracks or else simply out for an evening stroll. He was wearing what was described as “a cream camouflage” uniform. For the knifeman, seemingly on the prowl for a soldier to attack, the officer was almost certainly simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The motive remains unclear and well-placed sources stress that terrorism has not been ruled out as the reason for the senseless assault.
He had, it now appears, been riding around the area on a red scooter. Photographs show the alleged knifeman stood next to the moped. His helmet is off and his face is partially obscured by a ski mask. He is wearing a bomber jacket with the logo of NASA emblazoned on it.
Seeing the soldier, the attacker got off his scooter and launched the ferocious assault.
A witness told KentOnline: “The attacker was going for him and stabbed him about 12 times. This was with two kitchen knives, about nine to 10 inches long, and there were about seven of us there who witnessed it.”
The witness went on: “His wife tried to pull the attacker off. [The attacker] didn’t want her though, he just wanted the soldier. Nobody else in the vicinity was in danger – the only person he was targeting was the soldier he attacked.”
The initial assault lasted maybe 20 seconds. Lt Col Teeton struggled to his feet and tried to stagger back to his home in Sally Port Gardens. The assailant pursued him and launched a further stabbing spree before the soldier’s wife ran out to confront him.
Another witness heard the victim’s wife pleading for urgent medical assistance. “My husband has been stabbed – is there a first aider?” she asked as people were drawn to the scene.
She described the wife as not surprisingly “hysterical” and screaming: “No!”
As this unfolded, the witness watched the knifeman get back on his moped and drive away.
Footage from a nearby Ring security doorbell captured the wife screaming at the assailant. In the footage, obtained by The Telegraph, the wife can be heard screaming “What are you doing? What the f— are you doing?” and “get off him”.
A neighbour who arrived at the scene described the victim’s “piercing screams”. Alex Reynolds, a commodities analyst, who lives opposite the road where the attack happened, told The Telegraph: “The first thing I heard was a piercing scream. When I first went down there I thought it was a scuffle between two people, but as soon as we got there we realised it was more.
“I saw a man on the floor – he wasn’t moving so initially we thought he’d died immediately, but maybe he had just been told not to move. We stayed down there for about half an hour until they put a cordon up, nobody could really believe it had happened.”
Mr Reynolds, 38, said a woman, who he believed was the victim’s wife, started getting “other squaddies” to help him.
He said: “His wife came out and was telling other squaddies to get out of their cars and help.
“She was frantically running around literally directing traffic, telling them to drive on the pavements so they can get to the scene. She was getting as many people to try and help her husband.”
The witness added the victim, who has now been identified as Lt Col Teeton, was said to have gone for a daily walk every evening.
Not long after – and the timings are unclear – an air ambulance landed at Great Lines Heritage Park which abuts Sally Port Gardens and the lieutenant, his life in danger, was flown to an unnamed hospital in London for emergency treatment. His condition on Wednesday night was described as “serious but stable”.
The nearby barracks was thrown into lockdown, the echoes of a previous terrible attack on a soldier all too obvious. Lee Rigby had been savagely murdered by two jihadi terrorists outside Woolwich barracks in south London in 2013. In this case the motive remains unclear.
In a statement issued on Wednesday morning, Richard Woolley, Acting Chief Superintendent of Kent Police, said: “This was an upsetting incident for all concerned and our best wishes go to the victim, his family and those who witnessed the incident.
“Residents will experience an increased police presence in the Gillingham area and I would like to reassure everyone that officers responded quickly to take a man into custody and we do not currently believe anyone else was involved.
“The motivation for the attack is currently unknown and forms part of our ongoing enquiries, although we are exploring the possibility that it may be mental health-related. We are also investigating any possible links between the location and the suspect.
“There is no further information at this time to suggest there are any wider threats to the local community including members of the Armed Forces.”
Less than 30 minutes after the attack at around 6.20pm on Tuesday evening, the alleged attacker was arrested by police on suspicion of attempted murder in Mooring Road in Rochester about two and a half miles away. He was handcuffed and seen being led to a police car.
One neighbour who witnessed the arrest said the suspect offered no resistance to officers who struggled to get him into the police car because of his size. “He was as calm as anything,” he said.
The suspect is a 24-year-old man, who is thought to live nearby. He was being held in custody. Detectives will go through his electronic devices, his phone and computer, looking for clues as to why. On Wednesday lunchtime, police said they had “seized a number of knives” from the scene.
In Sally Port Gardens a cordon remained up in place. Nobody locally had expected anything bad to happen there. It was MoD land and neighbours had always felt safe. Lauren Alsey, 40, a resident, said: “It’s gutting really because moving here, we are not a military background, but this is MoD land. We get three security patrols a day, even Christmas Day.”
Jessica Turner, a 53-year-old primary school teacher who lives close by, said Brompton Barracks had been put into lockdown for around 30 minutes. She said her neighbour, a serviceman, had warned her husband to lock their doors and stay inside during the hunt for the attacker.
Ms Turner said: “It’s terrible, you have young families around. It looked like he was attacked just outside his home, what chance would he have had.”
At the scene of the arrest in Mooring Road a forensic officer entered a house while other forensic officers, with sniffer dogs, searched a cordoned-off area in the road.
The attack has sent shockwaves through a community and beyond. Sir Keir Starmer had wished the soldier a “swift recovery” at his first PMQs as prime minister while General Sir Roly Walker, Chief of General Staff, said he was “deeply saddened” by the “horrific” and “unprovoked attack” on one of his men. 
Lt Col Teeton is seriously ill but lucky to be alive. He has his wife to thank for that.