David W. Mayes helped to rescue Melissa D. Wentzell from assault, Pasadena, Texas, November 20, 1991. Mrs. Wentzell, 24, was in the parking lot of a day-care center when a man attacked her and stabbed her repeatedly. Just leaving the center, Mayes, 35, video store manager, saw the attack and approached; he pushed the assailant off Mrs. Wentzell. The assailant confronted Mayes and stabbed him in the neck, then resumed his assault on Mrs. Wentzell. Mayes repeatedly fought the assailant off Mrs. Wentzell, during which the assailant stabbed him again. Mayes went into the centera nd returned to the scene with a wooden chair, with which he struck the assailant. Again the assailant confronted Mayes, and they struggled, enabling Mrs. Wentzell to flee into the center. The assailant followed her into the building, where he resumed his attack. An employee of the center approached the assailant and sprayed him in the face with tear gas, causing him to stop attacking and leave the premises. He was shortly apprehended. Mrs. Wentzell was hospitalized for treatment of multiple stab wounds. Mayes was treated at the hospital for stab wounds to his neck and left arm, which required sutures, and one to his back, plus other abrasions and bruises. He recovered.
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