A Missouri man is recovering after being stabbed while trying to do a good deed.
Doctore Paton told Fox 4 News he was working on his pickup truck at his home in Independence on Sept. 29 when a man — later identified by police as 28-year-old Tyler Rizer — approached him asking for a ride.
“He said his car broke down there and he needed a ride back to Target, and being the good guy that I am, I agreed to give him a ride,” Paton said of the outlet.
However, he said when the couple got into his car, Rizer started acting strangely. He tried to change the destination where they were going. Paton said things got dangerous when he tried to pull over.
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According to a police statement obtained by KMBC-TV, Rizer allegedly took control of the car and began threatening Paton. He also allegedly removed a knife from the center console while doing so, according to the report Kansas City Star.
Paton’s wife, Heather, told KMBC-TV that Rizer told her husband, “You’re going to keep driving or I’m going to stab you.” Paton told Fox 4 News that he did the opposite of what Rizer wanted.
“I went to the curb and slowed the car down enough to where I could throw it into the parking lot, and took the key out of the lock,” he explained.
Paton said that when Rizer tried to get out of the car, he stabbed him twice in the chest. “I thought my life was in danger,” Paton told Fox 4 News. “I thought he was going to kill me.”
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However, he told the paper that after he was stabbed, he ran to his neighbor’s house, and the neighbor chased Rizer away with a shovel.
“I thank him very much for saving my life,” Paton said of his neighbor. Paton was able to escape and was taken to the hospital with critical injuries, KMBC-TV reported.
The police affidavit he received Kansas City Star he said that after stabbing Paton, Rizer continued his criminal spree by jumping over the fence and entering the yard of another tenant, where he threatened the mother and her two children. He allegedly stole their car, which then crashed.
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Witnesses reportedly told police that Rizer tried to kidnap someone after that crash, before he was eventually arrested.
Rizer has been charged with assault and armed criminal action, according to Fox 4 News. The Kansas City Star also reported that Rizer has a history of felony convictions that include assault on a law enforcement officer, robbery, burglary and tampering with a motor vehicle.
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