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 instructed PEOPLE all about that fateful day, detailing precisely what befell the second after the capturing occurred.
“I remember everything like it was yesterday,” he instructed the outlet, referring to when John was killed by Mark David Chapman in entrance of his Upper West Side residential constructing at 10:50 p.m. He stated he first encountered one other doorman named Jose, who was the primary one to see John after the capturing.
“I could hear Jose outside, ‘Oh Mr. Lennon.’ Boom, boom, doors close and I could hear the quick march of heels coming up the driveway,” he recalled. “So I walked over to the counter, where there was a hidden security button to unlock the door, so you could get into the Dakota proper.”
“As I was there with my finger on the button is when he [John] came running up, immediately after hearing gunshots, and he’s like, ‘I’m shot, I’m shot’ and he just ran past me to the back office, and just collapsed,” he continued.
Jay went on to elucidate that he rapidly processed what had occurred however on the time, “you’re not computing the end result,” and he didn’t know the severity of the wound. “[I] didn’t know how bad he was shot,” he stated. “I went into to the back office, Yoko [Ono, John’s wife] was there, like right behind him, screaming, ‘Get an ambulance. Get an ambulance.’ ”
He additionally stated that Jose “had already pushed the panic button that was in the doorman’s booth, and that just overwhelms the outgoing line with a constant message to the police, pre-recorded.” In an try to ensure to get the police’s consideration, Jay known as 911 from the Dakota constructing.
After Jose then instructed him that John’s shooter was nonetheless exterior and unarmed, he “grabbed the billy club on top of the safe” and went “down the stairs, because I was going to clock this guy, because I was afraid he was going to get away.”
As he approached Chapman, Jay admitted he observed he was “facing the wall, doing something . . . He was reading a book.” When police arrived a short while later, they initially thought Jay was the perpetrator. “I looked a little crazy, I already had blood on my hands, I just had my shirt on, my white shirt with no tie,” he stated. 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 loss of life. The proficient 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 known as John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, premiered on Wednesday and reexamines the homicide.
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