news-record.com

GREENSBORO - Vanessa Johnson woke up Thursday morning wishing she'd had a nightmare.

But her friend's blood still stained her driveway. It had really happened. She saw Elio Charcon Anderson II die outside her house Wednesday night when he was stabbed in the chest after defending her and the children she was watching.

"That's my hero," Johnson said. "He died being a hero. ... He died protecting children."

Police are searching for Scotty Lamont Brice Jr., 18, of Greensboro. Brice is charged with first-degree murder in Anderson's death. He also is charged with second-degree sexual offense, first-degree burglary, assault on a minor and two counts of assault on a female.

According to police, Brice stabbed Anderson after he intervened in an altercation between Brice and a woman.

Johnson, 25, said she is that woman. On Friday, she described the attack. She said a neighborhood man pushed his way into the Acorn Drive house where she lives with a friend and began making sexual advances toward her.

When she told him to leave, Johnson said, the man became violent - punching her, a 16-year-old girl, a relative of her housemate, and a 5-year-old boy Johnson was baby-sitting.

Johnson said the man hit the 5-year-old after the boy tried to stand up to him, telling him to leave Johnson alone.

Anderson heard Johnson's screams as he walked past, opened the door to the house and said, "What's going on?" Johnson said.

Seeing Anderson, the man left, but Johnson said she heard him threaten Anderson: "I got you," he said.

Minutes later, the man - described by neighbors as a troublemaker - returned with a knife.

Johnson said the man was wearing black and sneaking through in the narrow, shadowed space between Johnson's house and its neighbor.

Johnson said the man attacked Anderson and stabbed him in the chest.

Police said the man fled on foot toward Fargo Trail.

Johnson saw Anderson sink to his knees in her driveway, then fall over.

"Before the ambulance even got here, he was gone," she said.

Friends reminiscing on Thursday said Anderson, 22, acted as he always did: honorably.

"If anybody got upset, he was the one who would calm us down," said Logan Garrett, a friend of Anderson's since their days in the same class at Frazier Elementary.

Even Anderson's mother, Taron Manuel, took some consolation that her son had died while trying to help someone.

"My son didn't die in vain," Manuel said. "He didn't die doing anything crazy."

Funeral arrangements were incomplete Friday at Hargett Funeral Home.

Police are asking people with information about the crime to call Crime Stoppers at 373-1000.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist @news-record.com