'She stabbed me with a knife. I stabbed her back': Police release Algonquin man's 911 call after fatal Schaumburg stabbing

An Algonquin eye doctor accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death last month can be heard on a 911 call released Friday struggling to maintain his composure as he tells a dispatcher that she stabbed him first during a fight before he stabbed her back with the same knife.

He urgently requests an ambulance as he says “there's a lot of blood” and repeatedly asks if he should perform CPR.

When officers arrive about 5 minutes after the call starts, he asks helplessly, “What should I do?”

The call ends shortly after first responders arrive at the home of the victim, 48-year-old Malgorzata B. “Margaret” Daniel of Schaumburg.

Anthony R. Prate, 55, of the 1400 block of Spring Hill Drive, is charged with first-degree murder in the case. Authorities said Prate stabbed Daniel 20 to 30 times in a dispute early that morning.

After the dispatcher answers the 911 call and requests the address, the first word Prate utters, in a voice that is measured but trying to maintain its composure, is an expletive, then, “I don't know the exact address,” before saying he has to go outside to find it.

The dispatcher keeps him on the line, gently steering the conversation as she asks for the town.

He confirms it is Schaumburg and says, “We need an ambulance.” He then gives her the address number but is unable to recall the name of the street.

The dispatcher then says her mapping shows Arbor Glen Boulevard, to which he responds, “Yes, that's it!”

Then his voice gains urgency, as he says, “We need an ambulance very quickly, please.”

The dispatcher tells him she is getting the process started while feeding such questions as what type of building it is, where the address number is posted and the phone number he is calling from.

Soon the dispatcher asks what happened.

“My girlfriend and I had a fight,” he says calmly. “She stabbed me with a knife. I stabbed her back, and I think she is gravely wounded.”

The dispatcher says, “I'm going to get our police and paramedics on the way.”

She urges him to stay on the phone.

“Do you still have the knife in your hand, sir?”

He responds, “Um, it's on the floor.”

After a brief silence, he says, “She's not breathing. I don't know what I should do.”

The dispatcher advises him to stay on the phone, while reassuring him that she is letting officers know.

She then asks where her knife is.

“It's on the floor,” he tells her. “We were both fighting with the same knife.”

In the same concerned tone, the dispatcher says, “OK. Do you feel safe enough to go back inside to check on her at this point?”

He softly says, “Yes.”

He repeats, “Yes,” when she asks if they are both alone.

“OK, let me know when you're back inside. We do have help on the way as we're talking. OK?”

“OK,” he says in a worried voice.

After he goes back inside, she tells him she wants him to tell her if she is still awake.

“She's not,” he says in a worried tone.

His voice then begins to sound panicked as he says, “She doesn't look good. She doesn't look good. I don't know what I should do for her.”

“We're going to walk through this and try to help her until the police and paramedics get there, OK?” the dispatcher says. “Just stay on the phone with me here.”

She then asks more routine questions, prodding him to tell her how old the victim is, to which Prate says, “48?”

When she tells him to hang on, he asks, “Should I do CPR? Should I try CPR?”

She then asks him to hang on and says, “We're going to walk through this.”

She asks for the victim's age again. He says more definitely, “48.”

She then asks, “Is she breathing?”

He says, “I do not think so,” adding, “There is a lot of blood.”

She asks again, “Is she breathing?”

“I don't think so.”

He asks again if he should do CPR.

When she asks him to stay on, he says, “I've got injuries to my hands, and my arms. But I can do CPR. Should I ...?”

She soon says, “We're going to start CPR, but I'm letting my police and paramedics know. Just stay on the phone with me, OK?”

He continues to ask about CPR, before she says, “If there is a defibrillator available, I want you to get it now and tell me when you have it.”

He tells her he doesn't think there is one on hand.

“That's fine, sir. We're going to go step by step on this. Hang on just a second, please.”

“There is a lot of blood,” he says again.

Soon she asks if officers have arrived, and he says they have.

She says, “Hang up and talk to the officers. They'll help you.”

The call ends with him saying, “What should I do?”

Prate is being held without bail in Cook County jail.

During Prate's bail hearing, prosecutors said the topic of death arose during a party she hosted on the night of Nov. 22, which was attended by two of Daniel's neighbors who met Prate for the first time. The discussion appeared to upset Prate, who left the room and later returned, appearing agitated, authorities said.

Assistant state's attorneys said Prate became more agitated around midnight, leading into early Saturday morning when Daniel apologized for Prate's behavior as her neighbors were leaving. Prate told Daniel she didn't need to apologize for him, according to testimony.

Just after 12:15 a.m., one neighbor sent Daniel a text thanking her for the dinner. But shortly after 1:30 a.m., Prate called 911, prosecutors said.

When Schaumburg police officers arrived at the house, they reported a knife was in Daniel's right hand and she was on her back, bleeding and not breathing in the kitchen area, they said.