Middlesex DA Releases 911 Recordings In Fatal Winchester Stabbing

WINCHESTER, MA -- The Middlesex District Attorney's office released recordings of 911 calls and police radio transmissions in the harrowing moments following the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old woman at the Winchester Public Library last month. Jeffrey Yao, 23, of Winchester, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and one count of armed assault with intent to murder. Police say Yao snuck up behind Deane Kenny Stryker, a former classmate, and brutally stabbed her.

A 77-year-old man who tried to intervene was also injured. The first call comes from a Library employee and is just 11 seconds long. "This is the library. This is the library. Somebody is stabbing someone. Please come. Hurry! Hurry!" a woman says in the call.

• RELATED: Records Show Yao Had 2 Dozen Police Encounters

In the second call, a different woman tells the dispatcher "He just stabbed a woman in the back." When the dispatcher asks for a description, the caller gets flustered and the dispatcher forcefully repeats her command. "I'm sorry. There's somebody helping her...I see somebody cornered with his hands up."

By that point, Yao had been cornered and disarmed. The dispatcher repeatedly assured the caller that help was on the way. "I don't think so," the caller says when asked if the woman is consciouss. "There's a lot of blood. She's lying down on her back. Oh my God, there's a lot of blood."

Another woman gets on the phone and says that the victim is conscious. "Tell her an ambulance is on the way," the dispatcher says.

In the third call, a man who said he was at the library studying asks for an ambulance and police. He gives a description of Yao. "He's here. He's got his hands up...he's kneeling down. He's got his hands up...We're just here waiting for the police. There's no police here."

The caller said he did not see the attack but had just heard the woman yell. "It's safe in here," he says a few minutes later. "Just come in the library. This lady got stabbed."

The final audio file released by the DA's office include Winchester Police radio transmissions.

"This is pretty severe," one of the the responding police officers responds just after the three-minute mark of the recording. Seconds later another police officer asks for a second ambulance. Within five minutes of the first radio transmission police reported that the suspect was in custody.

On Saturday, Feb. 24, at approximately 10:30 a.m. Winchester Police received multiple 911 calls from library personnel on a landline in the Winchester Public Library for reports that two people had been stabbed. Police were able to respond within three minutes.

The preliminary investigation suggests that the female victim was seated at a table in the library when the suspect approached her, unprovoked, and began stabbing her from behind with an approximately 10-inch hunting knife. A number of other people came to her aid including a a 77-year-old man who had been sitting near her in the reading room. While attempting to intervene the man was stabbed in the arm. During the attack Stryker managed to get up and attempted to flee but the defendant pursued her and continued to assault her.

Several other patrons approached the defendant and they were ultimately able to separate him from Stryker. Yao was placed into custody at the library and transported to the Winchester Police Department. The circumstances surrounding the stabbing, including the motive, are under investigation.

The surviving victim asked for privacy at this time but later in the day numerous reports identified him as Lester Taber.

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Patch file photo by Middlesex District Attorney's Office.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).