As serial killer Bruce McArthur pressed down on his throat, the man now suddenly fighting for his life had one thought: “I gotta get out of this van — it’s all I’m thinking.” Shocked and confused, his heart racing, the man struggled underneath McArthur as the now-convicted killer pinned him with his body weight, one arm pushing firmly and steadily into his neck, another pressing the man’s arm down. After what felt like an eternity, unable to breathe and seeing black spots, the man was able to turn himself over and, “with every last ounce of energy,” push McArthur off.“I remember that first breath of air,” he said. Speaking publicly for the first time in an emotional interview, the man who escaped McArthur’s grasp in June 2016 told the Star he believed he was going to die on that sunny evening, with cars whizzing past on Bathurst St. and pedestrians walking by, unable to see into the dark windows of McArthur’s red Dodge Caravan.The night nearly turned deadly just minutes into what was supposed to be a coffee and meal at a Tim Hortons at Bathurst and Finch Ave., he said.The Star is not identifying the man because he is a victim of sexual assault and because he is not public about his sexual orientation. McArthur, convicted of eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of men spanning from 2010 to 2017, has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. “Someone just tried to strangle me,” he tells the 911 dispatcher, his voice sounding weak in an audio recording of a call captured by the man’s in-car camera system and played for the Star. After the dispatcher asks him to tell her what happened, he repeats: “Someone just tried to strangle me to death.” Read more:A timeline of the Toronto police investigation into Bruce McArthur and the Gay Village serial killingToronto officer failed to videotape interview with alleged McArthur choki ...
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