HUTTO – A 78-year-old man is back home after being injured during what police described as a “random” and “unprovoked” attack by a hatchet-wielding assailant in Home Depot.
According to an interview with KVUE, Manuel Vera said he was making a return about 5 p.m. Aug. 14 at the Home Depot, 600 West St., when a man walked toward him with a hatchet and began swinging.
John Doyle Bauer, 41, of Austin, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and remained in the Williamson County Jail in Georgetown on a $750,000 bond.
Vera, a Hutto resident, was rushed to a nearby hospital where he had surgery for his injuries, including his head and arm.
“The ax actually broke his arm on the first blow,” Vera’s son, Larry Hopper, said in an interview with the Austin television station.
Vera told KVUE he has been in other situations where he should have died and he now counts this incident as one of them.
He credited his guardian angel for being with him.
“I feel that it’s divine intervention,” he told KVUE.
