Stabbing Witness Speaks Out Against Violence

The man who was allegedly the intended victim in an early Christmas morning stabbing in Ammon is speaking out against violence on Sunday.

Two weeks after he witnessed the death of his best friend Buck Garner, Andrew Hall spoke to our station for the first time about what happened that night.

“I lost a brother, I lost a best friend,” he said. “I never get to see him again.”

Hall spends a lot of time in his mom’s living room these days. His house on Ammon Road isn’t safe for him anymore. He said he’s received threats and the house has been vandalized. After what happened there on Christmas morning, he said it’s a place he’ll never forget.

“It was probably 11 o’clock when all this started and I called Buck over,” he said.

Hall said he knew a group of guys was coming to the house to fight over a girl. So he called his best friend, Buck Garner. Neither of the boys knew Buck would be dead only hours after that phone call.

“I feel really, really sorry that I even called him that night,” said Hall. “I wish I never would have called him.” . A one-on-one fight is what Hall expected to happen between himself and Joey Chavez. Instead, he said Joey came in the back door with a group of friends.

“About the time the lead pipe hit me in the face, when it was going down I was like ‘what the hell is going on?'” said Hall. “‘Why are they all fighting me?’, I thought this was supposed to be one on one.”

Their idea of a fight, said Hall, wasn’t the same as his. They had weapons:

“A kid hit me in the back of the head with a shovel and I went out,” said Hall. “That’s the last thing I remember.”

Hall said the fighting continued after he blacked out. When he woke up, everything was quiet. That’s when he found Buck stabbed in the chest.

“I gave him a kiss on the forehead and i was like ‘I’m not leaving’ and he was like ‘Andrew you need to leave right now,'” said Hall.

He said he left and went back inside. He didn’t know what to do.

“Buck knew he was dying and he told me to leave,” he said. “Cause he knew how bad it would hurt me.”

In an interview, Hall said he didn’t feel responsible for Garner’s death.

“I feel responsible for the fight, but i don’t feel responsible for seven people to come in and jump me and then stab him,” he said.

He said the nature of the fight was responsible for what happened.

“People are starting to use weapons, and it’s not worth fighting anymore,” he said.

Chavez is charged with second degree murder for the slaying.

Hall said he and his friends won’t be settling things with fists any more

Garner’s family is still asking for help with funeral expenses. They still need to get a burial plot for Buck. Memorial funds are open at any branch of Westmark, Wells Fargo or Commerce Bank.