"It felt like a vibration. I felt like I touched a live wire," said Steve Mullan, who owns the Leo's Steak Shop in Folcroft. "I felt like I was being electrocuted."
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In shocking surveillance video obtained by Action News, Mullan can be seen standing under the doorway while one of his employees came up from behind and thrust a knife in his neck. Mullan said the employee worked at the shop for about a year.
"I did not feel it at all," recalled Mullan.
The steak shop owner tried to fight off his attacker with the knife still lodged in his neck.
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"I started punching him, he started punching me back. And then my son came over and my son grabbed two knives from our store, and he came up like a warrior trying to protect me," said Mullan.
Folcroft police arrested 43-year-old Sean Walklett. An officer had to deploy a taser while taking him into custody.
Walklett is facing eight charges including attempted first-degree murder.
"For the owner of the steak shop to still be walking and tell the officer what had happened was insane," said Folcroft Deputy Police Chief Chris Eiserman.
While the knife was still in his neck, Mullan said it was a matter of divine intervention. A police officer happened to be directing traffic down the street. The ambulance arrived within two minutes. The doctor attending to him in the hospital happened to be a specialist visiting from Chicago.
"He said, 'I've taken four knives out before.' He said, 'You'll be my fifth one and you're going to live,'" recalled Mullan. "He told me just what I wanted to hear!"
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Mullan says he's grateful to be alive but he doesn't know why Walklett would do this.
"I give you a paycheck, you live in my apartment building, you eat there every day, it was bewildering," said Mullan. "I was angry, I thought he should be off the streets and prosecuted to the fullest."
Police said Walklett does have a prior history of mental illness, and officers have had numerous contacts with him in the past.
Walklett was arraigned on Friday and his bail was set to $950,000. His preliminary hearing date is set for September 14.