A grandfather is being hailed as a hero after stepping in during a car crash that turned into an alleged stabbing spree.
Paul Sargeant, 67, was driving on the Princes Highway in Engadine, in Sydney’s south, on August 25 when he saw a white Jaguar collide with another car.
Sargeant swerved to miss the crash, and then quickly ran to help.
“Running over there I could see smoke coming from the dashboard… I thought they might think it was going to go up [in flames],” he told 9News.
“The screaming… I’ve never heard anything like it, we thought we were just attending a motor vehicle accident.
The alleged driver of the Jaguar, 51-year-old Antony Benson, had allegedly used a box cutter to stab his 43-year-old partner, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
Then, he got out of the car and allegedly charged at Sargeant.
“We sort of had her almost sitting on the ground… I leant in to undo her seat belt buckle and then he’s lashing out at me,” he said.
“We had to get the girl [to safety], so I tackled him.”
Sargeant suffered a 20cm gash across his abdomen during the scuffle, but that didn’t stop him from acting as a shield between the woman and Benson.
“He was yelling at her, saying, ‘You changed the station on the radio’, so we’re trying to calm him down a bit.
“So I said, ‘Man, my wife does that too.'”
Once police arrived, Benson was Tasered and arrested, while his partner was rushed to St George Hospital before being discharged last week.
In a statement, the woman’s family said they “would like to express their gratitude to the bystanders” and said they “pray that in time … everyone involved will be able to heal and put this horrible event behind them”.
Sargeant says he isn’t a hero, rather he just did the right thing.
“I just think it’s naturally what anyone would have done,” he said.
Investigators are combing through the footage they have gathered of the incident while Benson is preparing to face a judge for the first time next month.
