Mass wedding ceremony photographer stabbed at Maine reception faces lengthy restoration

“I now have a a scar that’s going to run from my sternum down to my belly button. It’s probably a foot in length that’s stapled up right now,” Halsing mentioned. “The next couple of weeks, I will be staying at home and work remotely until I’m able to drive again. It’s going to be a few months until everything is back to normal.”

Halsing was stabbed on May 23 as he was taking footage on the dance ground of a Saturday evening wedding ceremony reception at Kingsley Pines Camp in Raymond, Maine.

Andrew T. Manderson, 26, of Scarborough, was charged with elevated aggravated assault and aggravated assault. Manderson is free on $50,000 bail and due again in courtroom on Oct. 27.

Halsing went to Maine together with his fiancée, Ashley Wall, whom he met at Framingham State University. The couple began wedding ceremony pictures as a aspect enterprise a few years in the past to assist pay for their very own wedding ceremony in September.

“It was an absolutely lovely day up there. A beautiful place to have a wedding,” Halsing mentioned. “We were very excited to be there and hang out with a couple all day and get their photos.”

Halsing mentioned he was subsequent to the cake-cutting desk taking footage of individuals dancing when a visitor, later recognized as Manderson, got here as much as him and began asking him questions.

“It’s not uncommon for people when we’re working to ask us about our business. He asked about wedding prices and what we charge,” Halsing mentioned. “And it was very hard to hear him because I was standing right in front of one of the speakers for the DJ. So I pulled out my phone to show him our Instagram page. I at least got the name of our Instagram in the search bar when he reached around to his back pocket.”

Halsing mentioned he assumed Manderson, whom he had by no means met, was getting his telephone to take his info. But and not using a phrase, he pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed him within the stomach.

“I looked down and I saw a hole in my stomach. And I said ‘that’s not very good’. I looked up and out of my peripheral vision, I saw him walking out of the barn,” the place the marriage was being held, Halsing mentioned.

Halsing mentioned he obtained onto the stage in entrance of the DJ and began yelling for assist.

He shortly was surrounded by a gaggle of wedding ceremony visitors and his fiancé, who started tending to his wounds.

“The bride is a nurse and one of the members of her bridal party, Ryan, he is an ER nurse, and he immediately got me sat down in a chair, got the wound packed up with napkins, and then the tablecloth got wrapped around me to hold pressure,” he recalled. “A few of the guests were trained medical professionals as well. Without them, I very easily could have died.”

While the most effective man, an off-duty police officer, requested Halsing about his attacker, just a few wedding ceremony visitors chased after Manderson, who had fled to a close-by small lake, Lieutenant James Estabrook on the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office mentioned. Estabrook mentioned the motive behind the assault just isn’t clear.

Police arrived shortly after 9 p.m. and took Manderson into custody inside 20 minutes, Estabrook mentioned.

Halsing later realized that Manderson is a cousin of the bride. He mentioned he has no concept what prompted the assault and is hoping to study extra info as Manderson’s courtroom case proceeds.

“It was a very stressful situation but I tried to stay as calm as I could,” Halsing mentioned. “When they got me stabilized, they asked me ‘Do you need anything?’ and I just said ‘Please go check on Ashley, make sure she is OK.’”

Halsing and Wall had planned their own bridal shower for Sunday but had to postpone the event.

They still plan to have friends and family drop off gifts while Halsing continues his recovery from home. A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $18,000 for his recovery.

While the incident was “certainly frightening,” Halsing mentioned it made him much more grateful for his personal wedding ceremony.

“Our wedding is going to be a little bit different, because we’re not going to be the ones behind the camera,” he said. “But I know it’s going to be a magical, wonderful experience to celebrate our love for each other. Last weekend was really awful but it goes to show that we really do love each other. We are going to look out for each other forever.”

Hannah Goeke might be reached at [email protected].