EXCLUSIVE: Beyoncé's Super Bowl poster boy for Black Lives Matter was 'high on drugs' then stabbed me and threatened to keep doing it - before he was gunned down by cops, reveals victim

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The stabbing victim of the poster for for Black Lives Matters at the Super Bowl has broken his silence to tell of his own ordeal.

The death of Mario Woods, who was shot by police in San Francisco in December, was thrust onto the world stage when Beyoncé's backup dancers held up a sign demanding 'justice' and making a black power salute.

But now the man whose stabbing set in motion the chain of events which ended with Woods being shot has gone public to tell Daily Mail Online what really happened.

Marcel Gardner decided to break his silence to tackle claims that Woods, 26, had not stabbed anyone before his death.

Gardner also made clear that he does not condone the police shooting, but said that it was right for the full truth to be known. 

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Caught on camera: The final moments of Mario Woods were filmed, showing a series of officers surrounding him and then shots being fired. Police say he had ignored demands to drop a knife

Victim revealed: Marcel Gardner, 26, was stabbed by Mario Woods shortly before Woods was shot and killed by San Francisco police. He has come out of hiding to dispel suggestions that Woods did not stab anyone

Global impact: The picture and video of Beyoncé's dancers holding the Justice 4 Mario Woods sign and making a black power salute was seen by millions

Gardner, 26, was attacked and stabbed minutes before Woods, also 26, was cornered by police and shot 21 times.

Until now little had been revealed about how Woods stabbed a man and had been high on drugs.

Gardner told how Woods, who was carrying a kitchen knife, circled his car 'like a shark' and appeared to be high on drugs when he launched his stabbing attack, wounding Gardner in his left arm.

Activists in the Hunter’s Point neighborhood of San Francisco had questioned whether Woods had in fact been involved in a knife attack as police had not identified the victim.

But Gardner, an unemployed technical engineer, has a stab wound in his arm and is certain it was Woods who had attacked him.

Woods had convictions for armed robbery and possession of a firearm. He had been released early from a seven-year prison sentence.

Gardner, who is open that he was smoking drugs at the time of the attack, and that he would not normally co-operate with the police - says that he is clear that Woods was his assailant. 

On the afternoon of December 2 Gardner said, he was with two women, one of them a mother who had her child with her, who had met for the purposes of smoking weed. 

He said he did not know their names and has not been able to trace them since.

'I had just met the women who wanted to smoke some weed with me,' he said.

'I was chilling in my car and looking at my iPad, looking for jobs and playing videos.

Wounded: This is the stab wound suffered by Marcel Gardner, which was still to heal days after the attack

Remembered: Mario Woods was said to be a 'nice young man' but he had been sentenced to seven years in prison in 2012 and released early. His mother Gwen was said to be pleased at the use of her son's name on Sunday

They were in the car and - Woods admits - 'high' when a man who seemed 'agitated and just a little bit paranoid' approached the car.

'He was just muttering and then in one minute he started zoning in on the car. I couldn't make out what he was saying,' he said.

'He was shouting and screaming and said: "You had better get away from here…this is my block."

'Then he started circling the car like a shark and the girls began tripping out. 'They were on their phones and one girl was talking to her babydaddy and about what he was going to do and I guess he heard it.'

The man seemed to become more agitated, Gardner said, adding: 'He pulled the door open and I pushed the door back and got out of the car.

'I was thinking that if he is this aggressive, he could just bust a window and go Marilyn Manson on me and poking me [stabbing with the knife] and I would have no chance.

'I asked what was going on, but he already had the knife out. 

'He ran up on me and tried to swing on me towards my chest and neck area. Most of the time I was trying to dodge his movements with the knife.

Political: Beyoncé's dance routine was clearly designed to evoke the Black Panthers and make reference to African-American issues - but it was not intended to be about the death of Mario Woods

Political message: The X formation was seen as an overt reference to Malcolm X 

'I tried to land a punch and I felt a nick in my arm. I didn't realize anything until I started feeling this leaking sensation down my elbow.

'My shirt just turned red and I could see the blood coming out.

'I was looking around for something to knock the knife out of his hand as I knew now I was down to defending myself with one arm.

'There were some construction workers watching, but nobody came to help. It went on for two to three minutes.

'He was saying "I am going to poke the s*** out of you" as he came for me. Then he said: "If you hit me again I am going to poke you again."'

Gardner ran into an alley, while one of the girls drove the car away. 

'My arm was going limp and I had no strength on my arm whatsoever. I thought I might bleed out and tried to tie a noose around it with my jacket,' he said.

'Blood was gushing out and the ladies were screaming "Oh my god, oh my god."'

Gardner got back into the car, he said. 'He jumped out in the middle of the street with the knife in his hand. The girls were screaming like lunatics.'

Gardner managed to drive away and went straight to San Francisco Hospital for treatment with the women and baby on board..

Meanwhile, his attacker was encountered by armed police four blocks away and cornered. Someone else had called 911.

Videos of the incident captured on cellphones have been posted online and handed to police officers investigating the shooting.

They show the officers circling the suspect who has his back to a wall and is walking adjacent to it.

Officers say they shot beanbag rounds and used pepper spray to try to arrest Woods, but he failed to drop the knife.

The officers opened fire with their guns and he was killed on the spot.

The officers are Winson Seto, Antonio Santos, Charles August, Nicholas Cuevas and Scott Phillips and none have been reprimanded and have returned to work.

Site: This is the place where Mario Woods was shot by police, who say he refused to drop a knife

Political: The memorial to the dead man, who had been released early from a seven-year sentence, has become a focal point for Black Lives Matters slogans

Gardner said a short while after arriving at hospital, police officers emerged to question him about the attack on him.

'I had to go the hospital because I was passing out and I kept thinking about my kids and that I get to see them again.

'I didn't call the police and my only contact with them was when we were at the hospital.

'I began to realize something was wrong when more and more police came to the hospital.

'I didn't know anything about Mario being shot. They kept asking me if I knew the guy who stabbed me and if I knew his face and what he was wearing and I kept saying "No, No."'

He got eight stitches into the wound on his left arm. He drove away from hospital unaware that his attacker had been shot 21 times and that the cell phone video of his last moments was already circulating on the internet.

At 1.30 the next morning, a friend showed him the video on the internet and he immediately recognized Woods as the victim.

'My jaw dropped. I said "whoa…that's the dude who stabbed me".'

Woods' last moments led to outrage in San Francisco and street protests were organized while Gardner went into hiding fearing for his safety.

The shooting victim's mother and family argued he was not 'aggressively fighting' the officers, who should have kept their distance and they have filed a lawsuit against the police department.

Gardner added: 'I am a black man and I didn't want to see another black man get gunned down, especially in my neighborhood.'

He said some of his family knew Woods and described him as a 'sweetheart' and that he had become aware after the death that Woods had been released from prison.

Gardner said he was still angry at what his attack on him, but was 'conflicted' when he learned what happened to him.

'All the police had told me was that they had got the knife, and I had started putting pieces of the puzzle together, but nobody had told me Mario had been shot dead,' he said.

'After I had seen the video, I realized that this was going to blow up in my face.'

As a result of the stabbing he is on pain killers and, he says, has been unable to work since as his arm is weak.

Gardner said that he did not believe his assailant should have been shot. 

'When I see the video, I feel that maybe it could have been a lot of different tactics that could have been used like setting a canine on him,' he said.

'I don't know all the police policies but there does need to be other ways to deal with people other than excessive force. 

'I believe one shot like a non fatal shot to disarm Mario in the arm would have been enough.'

An autopsy report released last night showed Woods had suffered 21 gunshot wounds and had marijuana, methamphetamine antidepressants and cough medicine in his system,

The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and 27 bullet casings were recovered from the scene.

Shawn Richard, of San Francisco's 'Brothers against Guns, said: 'This was an execution by firing squad. Mario stood no chance.'

San Francisco Police Department said its officers had opened fire on Woods 'fearing serious injury or death'.

Black Lives Matter said the five officers should be sacked and charged with murder and they called for the resignation of police chief Greg Suhr, who had already been under pressure after 14 of his officers were found to have engaged in texting racist and homophobic messages.

But Gardner said he hoped some good could ultimately come from his stabbing and said: 'I wish I could so something. I feel sorry that his life ended the way that it did.

'I am alive... but I don't feel that he deserved to die.'