Stabbing victim's main concern? His wife's reaction

Ben Davis stumbled out of the bathroom of an underground Center City complex on Thursday after being stabbed six times during a robbery attempt, but all he could think about was how his wife would react.

"I was bleeding a lot and she said, 'don't close your eyes,' " Davis, 65, told the Daily News as he sat in a chair inside of a Thomas Jefferson University Hospital room yesterday.

Davis' left ear and the right side of his forehead were slashed. A thick piece of gauze covered the crease of his right hand between his thumb and forefinger where he had been stabbed.

The Camden resident was listed in good condition yesterday and expects to leave the hospital within a few days.

William Berrioz, 24, of Dover Street near Thompson, remains in custody on $250,000 bail, charged with the attack in the concourse level of the Mellon Independence Center, 7th and Market streets. Berrioz has been charged with attempted murder, robbery, assault and related offenses.

Davis and his wife, Sandy, were making their twice-monthly trip to the Hair Express in the Mellon Independence Center for her to get her hair done.

While in the men's room, Davis said he saw Berrioz standing at the sink. Then Davis said he felt something sharp poking him in the back. That's when he realized Berrioz was behind him with a "really big dagger."

Davis said he used a plastic bag with a sandwich in it to divert the direction of the knife. "I was thinking, he was going to kill me," Davis said.

He managed to escape from the bathroom, notify a guard and stumble into the salon nearby.

Berrioz was apprehended after he punched a 26-year-old security guard in the jaw, police said. Davis said police brought Berrioz near the ambulance so he could identify him.

"I don't know what he thought, maybe he wasn't thinking," Davis said. "I'm glad they caught the guy."

Berrioz received nine months' probation for simple assault after he attacked a man in March 2007 at a homeless shelter on Woodland Avenue near 69th Street, according to court records. The victim said Berrioz had pummeled him, wrapped a cord around his neck and began to choke him.

In 2008, Berrioz was sentenced to two years' probation for receiving stolen property after stealing a woman's car and wrecking it at Gowen and Michener avenues. In both cases, he was ordered to continue mental-health treatment and take medications.

Berrioz also was arrested in 2006 and accused of entering Martin Luther King Jr. High School through a stairwell with two foot-long butcher knives while he was a student at Germantown High. Charges in that case were dismissed.