John A. Franco attempted to rescue Theodore E. DeMers, Sr., from assault, Willington, Connecticut, May 22, 2020. On the road in his rural neighborhood, DeMers, 62, was attacked by a 23-year-old man wielding a sword. As DeMers was on the ground, the assailant, wearing a motorcycle helmet, stood over him and slashed DeMers, inflicting severe wounds to his hands, head, and upper body. Having been alerted by screaming from the road and then seeing the assailant attacking, DeMers’s neighbor, Franco, 80, retired auditor, called out for the assailant to stop and moved from his driveway onto the road toward him. As Franco approached the assailant, who was significantly larger than him, the assailant shifted his focus to Franco and attacked him with the sword; Franco fell near his driveway. The assailant slashed at Franco’s hands and head. As alerted neighbors responded, the assailant fled the scene on a motorcycle; he was arrested five days later in another state. DeMers died that morning as he was being taken to a hospital. Franco, who was hospitalized for one week and spent another week in a rehabilitation center, underwent surgery to repair serious wounds to both hands, although his left hand remained disabled.
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