Ernest E. Haddad, 31, clergyman, saved a three-year-old girl following a homicidal attack, Round Lake, Minnesota, December 12, 1957. While the three-year-old girl and her sister, 14 months, were asleep, their father became violent and threatened their mother with bodily harm. The mother left and sought the help of Haddad, who went to the dwelling and was threatened by the father with a shotgun. Finding that the town’s only peace officer was ill, Haddad returned to the dwelling, where the father again threatened him with the gun and forced him to retreat. As Haddad watched from some distance away, the father threw the younger girl and then her sister onto the front lawn. The pajamas of both girls were stained with blood from multiple knife wounds they had received. Haddad left briefly to telephone authorities in another town and then returned to near the dwelling. In the zero temperature he saw that the three-year-old was still was breathing and thought that she might bleed or freeze to death. Moving to the side of the dwelling, Haddad crawled on his hands and knees beneath three windows and reached the front of the house. Although fearing that the father might shoot at him through the front windows, Haddad rose to a crouching position and ran 12 feet to the older girl. Clutching her to him, Haddad turned and ran to the back of the dwelling. Two men then took the girl to a hospital while Haddad and another man remained on watch until a sheriff and his deputy arrived. They removed the younger girl, who was dead; and apprehended the father, who shouted incoherently while brandishing a crowbar. The three-year-old girl was hospitalized for eight days but recovered.
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