20 - The Attack against Rector Goangă

Summary

I was in my office at the Psychotechnic Institute, in the building occupied today by the local branch of the Academy—where Avram Iancu Street ends in what was then Royal Street, today's Republic Street—when Miss Angheliu, a psychology student, came to me, scared, to tell me about the attempt on Professor Goangă's life. I ran out in my lab coat, without putting on my overcoat, to the scene of the crime, and while passing through the secretarial office I asked Mihail Peteanu to call an ambulance to take the rector to the clinic right away. Miss Angheliu stayed in the building's foyer. Down the road, on Avram Iancu Street, but across the street from the scene of the crime, I met Alexandru Roşca, the only member of the institute's scientific staff who regularly attended Professor Goangă's lectures in order to curry favor. Miss Angheliu heard the shots and saw the flashes, but could not see the professor.

“What happened?” I asked Roşca.

“They shot the old man,” he said.

“So what are you standing there for? Let's go help him.”

“Are you crazy? You want them to shoot us too?”

I left him there and ran to the professor, telling him the ambulance was on its way and would arrive at any moment. The minutes went by with difficulty, and his wounds were bleeding rather heavily.

“Mărgineanu, I’m dying, save me.”

“I have three kids, professor,” said the constable, who had also been shot. “Don't leave me here, my kids are gonna be left out in the streets.”

Two or three minutes later, Professor Vasiliu from the medical school passed by in his car. I stopped him right away and asked him to take Rector Goangă to the clinic, as the ambulance might be too late. Professor Vasiliu got out of the car right away and, with his driver, we tried to get Professor Goangă into the car without putting too much strain on him, aggravating his bleeding, as Professor Vasiliu told us. We couldn't manage. Meanwhile the ambulance arrived and took out a stretcher, which allowed Professor Goangă to be picked up without twisting his body. I went inside the ambulance too.