Man Killed In Taunton Mall Rampage Awarded Medal For Heroism

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Massachusetts man who died saving a waitress from being stabbed by a mentally ill man and a 12-year-old Pennsylvania boy who died trying to save his father from a house fire are among 20 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, based in Pittsburgh, announced the winners Wednesday.

George A. Heath, 56, was dining at a Bertucci's restaurant in his hometown of Taunton when Arthur DaRosa, who had fatally stabbed an 80-year-old woman at her home earlier that night, walked in and stabbed a waitress.

Heath grabbed DaRosa and was stabbed in the head before another restaurant patron, off-duty Plymouth County Deputy Sheriff James Creed, fatally shot DaRosa.

"George selflessly intervened within seconds, without even knowing what was going on," Creed said after the incident on May 10, 2016. "Without George, things would have been very much worse."

Sanford Harling III had escaped a fire at his family's duplex in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 6, 2016, when he went back inside to try to save his father. Sanford Harling Jr., 58, was able to drop to the ground from a second-floor window, and his son was later found dead from burns and smoke inhalation.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission is named for the late steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who was inspired by stories of heroism during a coal mine disaster that killed 181 people, including a miner and an engineer, who died trying to rescue others.

The commission investigates stories of heroism and awards medals and cash several times a year. It has given away $38.9 million to 9,934 awardees or their families since 1904.

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