Local Heroes

Just wanted to call attention to a letter in today's paper from one Patricia Lamoree of Granada Hills:

Exceptional bravery Re "6-year-old boy killed in cleaver attack" (Aug. 14):

What a courageous act by the 53-year-old woman who intervened in the savage attack on a mother and son by a demented man. It took exceptional bravery to risk her own life to help. She deserves public recognition for her outstanding act of heroism.

- Patricia Lamoree

Amen to that. There are several heroes in this story:

As the cleaver-wielding killer chased Sandra Ruiz into her quiet apartment complex, she screamed for her 6-year-old son to run.

Sev'n Molina never made it.

Apparently enraged over the boy playing video games, the man bellowed "Die! Die!" as he hacked at the child's head. When Ruiz stepped between them to save her dying son, the man turned the blade on her, forcing her to the ground and falling on top of her prone body.

Ruiz struggled to reach for Sev'n as her attacker chopped down, nearly severing her arm and hand, witnesses said.

A 53-year-old woman who lives nearby rushed out and fought with the man, sustaining a cut to the face before knocking the butcher's tool from his hands. Another man pounced on him and knocked him to the ground. The pair struggled with him for several minutes until Ventura County Sheriff's Department deputies arrived and shot the alleged killer with Tasers.

Sandra Ruiz is a brave, loving mom, and the two neighbors who risked their lives to help her are amazing. God bless them all -- especially in their agony over little Sev'n's death.