Russell V. Cera helped to save an indeterminate number of persons from assault, Racine, Wisconsin, June 3, 1991. After causing a multi-vehicle wreck at an intersection, a 35-year-old man exited his pickup truck and, brandishing a machete, attacked two of the occupants of the involved vehicles and threatened and attacked other persons in the vicinity. As oneof the victims, an 80-year-old man, was being slashed, Cera, 29, an off-duty police officer, approached and taunted the assailant, distracting him. The assailant charged at Cera, who was unarmed, before approaching a woman in her car and attacking her with the machete. Again Cera intervened, drawing the assailant away momentarily. Over the course of the next several minutes, Cera ran up to the assailant repeatedly and taunted him in dogged attempts to stop his attacks. When another man began to move in from behind the assailant, Cera slowly approached him head on. After the other man tackled the assailant, Cera and others helped to subdue him until arriving police assumed control. Cera required hospital treatment for a contusion and abrasion to his arm, from which he recovered, and numerous others also required hospital treatment for injuries inflicted by the man.
65907-7648