A racial slur. Then the slice of a razor. Kenosha man believes he survived a hate-fueled murder attempt

From The Journal Times.com:

DENEEN SMITH Lee Newspapers

KENOSHA — There is a sound a razor makes when it opens up skin, Cleveland Carr said.

“It’s like this,” Carr said, slapping one hand against another, the sound of a sudden crack. “Then I felt this warm feeling, and I knew it was blood — I knew I was fighting for my life right there.”

Carr, 61, was at home Friday morning in the rooming house he shares with about 10 other people on the 1800 block of 67th Street, drinking coffee in the living room, talking to a friend who lived in the house about the meal he planned to make to share with his housemates that day. Chace Holst, 30, sat nearby in the living room.

Carr asked Holst if he would like to join them to eat

“He just said, ‘No, thank you,’ just no thank you,” Carr said.

Minutes later, Carr was walking through the kitchen when he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. Someone grabbed him, slamming his head against the refrigerator.

“I’m going to kill a (n-word),” a voice said.

Carr said it was Holst, and that he had a box cutter in his hand.

“He grabbed me, and he opened up my throat,” Carr recalled.

The razor sliced Carr from under his right ear across his throat. Carr fought back, breaking the plastic handle of the box cutter. The struggle took them into the hallway near Holst’s room, where he said Holst grabbed a steak knife, stabbing him on the left side of his neck, then cutting him from his chest up toward his right ear, this incision meeting the first.

The knife broke as Carr fought back, yelling for his friend to call 911. He said he felt his flesh fall open like the pages of a book.

“I started getting weak because I was losing so much blood,” Carr said.

With the knife and the box cutter both broken, he said, Holst grabbed a large flat-head screwdriver that was on the floor of his room. Carr said he was on his knees — he pointed out the scabs and bruises on his knees left by his fight during an interview Tuesday — when Holst got on top of him holding the screwdriver.

“He took my head and pushed it down, and he held up the screwdriver — he was going to stab me in the head,” Carr said. “I thought it was over.”

Then, he said, he heard police arriving, and Holst pulled back.

“I got saved by the sirens,” Carr said.

Read more: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/a-racial-slur-then-the-slice-of-a-razor-kenosha-man-believes-he-survived-a/article_9632f54b-b4d8-5c49-8e84-4c524352f885.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1