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Good Samaritans honored for helping chain saw attack victim

Four people who work in an Arlington Heights office complex were honored Monday by the police department for helping rescue and provide first aid to a man attacked with a chain saw.

The certificates of appreciation — presented at a village board meeting to three who were there of the four — reflect the actions they took in response to the chain saw attack the early afternoon of June 19, police and village officials said.

“The collective selfless initiative by four local business employees was extraordinary,” Mayor Tom Hayes said. “They acted without regard for their personal safety when a fellow human being was found in crisis.”

Scott Frost and Mark Hewitt, who work at Tri-Guards Inc., witnessed the attack shortly after 1 p.m. in the office complex parking lot on the 500 block of West Golf Road. Authorities say the attacker rammed his car into a car driven by his estranged wife and her boyfriend, then chased after the man with the running chain saw.

The 39-year-old man sustained debilitating injuries, with a severed left forearm and major blood loss. But the chain saw stalled during the attack, preventing further injuries, police said.

That's when Frost and Hewitt jumped in, pulling the bleeding man to safety in the neighboring office where he works.

“Seizing the opportunity and without regard for their personal safety, both Mr. Frost and Mr. Hewitt exposed themselves to significant risk by pulling the victim away from the offender,” Hayes said.

Both co-workers were inside their office when they heard the car crash and went outside to see what was going on. They say they witnessed one man, wielding the chain saw, chasing the other man around the parking lot.

“It was crazy,” Frost said. “It was like a movie.”

Hewitt tried to calm down the attacker.

“I told the guy with the chain saw, 'Chill. Relax.' He revved the chain saw and ran past me.”

After the chain saw jammed, Frost and Hewitt were able to run over to the bleeding victim and bring him inside, where co-workers Deborah Bauer and Valerie Valadez helped provide emergency first aid. The four of them worked together to apply a tourniquet and pressure dressings in an effort to control the man's bleeding.

Only Valadez was not at the meeting Monday to accept the award. Frost said he didn't expect the recognition but is glad he could help.

“I think if we wouldn't have gotten him inside when we did and I knew how to put a tourniquet on somebody and do first aid, he may not have lived,” Frost said. “He was bleeding pretty bad.”

Frost said he's heard the victim is “doing pretty well.”

Prosecutors charged Jose A. Jaimes-Jiminez, 27, with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery in the attack. A judge set bail at $2.5 million. Jaimes-Jiminez is due back in court Sept. 7.

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  Mark Hewitt of Mount Prospect is congratulated by Arlington Heights Police Chief Gerald Mourning on Monday for helping a man attacked with a chain saw in June. "I told the guy with the chain saw, 'Chill. Relax,'" Hewitt said. Steve Lundy/slundy@dailyherald.com
  The Arlington Heights Police Department awarded certificates of appreciation to four citizens on Monday for rescuing and providing first aid to a man attacked with a chain saw on June 19. Steve Lundy/slundy@dailyherald.com
  Arlington Heights police gather up evidence, including a chain saw and bloody clothes, on June 19 after a domestic case turned violent in an office complex parking lot. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com, June 2017
Jose A. Jaimes-Jiminez
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