The grandfather-of-five said there were already two officers at the scene when he arrived with Anya – and soon after, a man exited the block of flats where the attack took place.
Mr Sampson said he fit the description he had been given of the suspect – but had begun to turn and walk away from where the officer was standing.
'I shouted to him, 'Can I have a word with you and can you tell me where you've been?',' the ex-constable explained. 'And he didn't answer me.
'He just spun and started coming back towards me. And as he's getting closer to me, I then noticed that on his jogging bottoms there was some blood.
'So I thought, 'Well, yeah, fair bet you're the man.' He's coming towards me and I looked to my right where my colleagues were and by this time, there were four other officers at the scene.
'They were around 50 yards or more away. And I turned back looking at him and he's now got a knife out and he's sweeping that backwards and forwards across his body.'
The officer began shouting that he was a police dog handler and would release the animal on him if he did not put the weapon down – but Suleiman continued to brandish the knife.
'I backed away, backed away, backed away, until I really couldn't give him any more time or any more space – I had to send the dog. And after that moment, it was just mad,' Mr Sampson said.
I saw my dog hit him and bounce off him and disappear, which surprised me. I can't really remember everything that went on.
'I saw him attacking one of my colleagues. I tried to kick him, missed, and he came back at me.
'And then, my last memory of the incident was I could feel what I thought was someone punching me on the back of my head and I was actually face down on the ground and he was stabbing me in the back of the head.'
In a particularly chilling twist, the officer explained: 'He never said a word. Bearing in mind, he's got a dog on him, and if you've ever been bitten by a dog, that is an incredibly painful thing.
'It's a German Shepherd, full mouth bite, and that hurts, I promise you. Even with a sleeve on, that hurts. If you have that on bare flesh, I've heard people scream and it's unearthly the noise that people make when they're getting bitten by a dog like that.
'Not a sound. He was batoned, sprayed, tasered.'
It was only when a Taser was discharged directly to Suleiman's groin, in a desperate attempt to disarm him, that he finally spoke, Mr Sampson said.
'At that point in this incident, he said, 'Ouch'. And that's it. The only thing he said,' he explained. 'And at that point and at no other point did he drop the knife.'
Reading this account by Neil Sampson ex police officer it's clear the softly softly approach wouldn't have worked very well with this particular individual, not that it would with any terrorist. Thankfully today's police officers were able to manage him effectively.