John Lennon‘s doorman from the day he was shot and killed has spoken out concerning the tragedy, in a brand new heartbreaking interview. Jay Hastings was working on the Dakota, the place the Beatles member lived on December 8, 1980, and informed PEOPLE all about that fateful day, detailing precisely what came about the second after the capturing occurred.
“I keep in mind every part prefer it was yesterday,” he informed the outlet, referring to when John was killed by Mark David Chapman in entrance of his Higher West Facet residential constructing at 10:50 p.m. He mentioned he first encountered one other doorman named Jose, who was the primary one to see John after the capturing.
“I may hear Jose exterior, ‘Oh Mr. Lennon.’ Growth, growth, doorways shut and I may hear the short march of heels arising the driveway,” he recalled. “So I walked over to the counter, the place there was a hidden safety button to unlock the door, so you might get into the Dakota correct.”
“As I used to be there with my finger on the button is when he [John] got here operating up, instantly after listening to gunshots, and he’s like, ‘I’m shot, I’m shot’ and he simply ran previous me to the again workplace, and simply collapsed,” he continued.
Jay went on to clarify that he rapidly processed what had occurred however on the time, “you’re not computing the tip end result,” and he didn’t know the severity of the wound. “[I] didn’t understand how unhealthy he was shot,” he mentioned. “I went into to the again workplace, Yoko [Ono, John’s wife] was there, like proper behind him, screaming, ‘Get an ambulance. Get an ambulance.’ ”
He additionally mentioned that Jose “had already pushed the panic button that was within the doorman’s sales space, and that simply overwhelms the outgoing line with a continuing message to the police, pre-recorded.” In an try to verify to get the police’s consideration, Jay referred to as 911 from the Dakota constructing.
After Jose then informed him that John’s shooter was nonetheless exterior and unarmed, he “grabbed the billy membership on high of the protected” and went “down the steps, as a result of I used to be going to clock this man, as a result of I used to be afraid he was going to get away.”
As he approached Chapman, Jay admitted he observed he was “going through the wall, doing one thing . . . He was studying a e-book.” When police arrived a short while later, they initially thought Jay was the wrongdoer. “I regarded a bit of loopy, I already had blood on my palms, I simply had my shirt on, my white shirt with no tie,” he mentioned. He made certain to level police to Chapman, who was then arrested and ultimately sentenced to twenty years-to-life for capturing and killing John.
John was 40-years-old on the time of his demise. The gifted musician left behind his spouse, Yoko, and their son, Sean Lennon, who was five-years-old on the time of his passing, in addition to his oldest son, Julian Lennon, who was 17. A brand new Apple TV+ docuseries referred to as John Lennon: Homicide With no Trial, premiered on Wednesday and reexamines the homicide.
