An 18-year-old former football player has been accused of fatally beating an 86-year-old woman in California. According to PEOPLE, the assault was sexually motivated after she tried to stop him from allegedly attacking her friend.
According to the publication, Fusako Petrus and her 61-year-old friend were attacked by Neven Glen Butler at about 6 a.m. Wednesday as they were walking on the track at Highlands High School.
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The friend managed to escape but Petrus was killed, he said.
“There was no rhyme nor reason for this,” Sacramento County sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Turnbull said. “This was an innocent woman going about her day. This guy was just very brazen.”
The alleged assailant, is a Twin Rivers Unified School District dropout who last attended classes at Highlands High in December, a district spokesperson told PEOPLE. He was a member of the varsity football team from 2015 to 2016.
He is being held without bail in the Sacramento County Jail after being booked Friday on a murder charge and two counts of assault with attempt to commit rape. He was already in custody for an unrelated but similar assault on Wednesday of a 92-year-old woman at a local elderly care home, authorities say.
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He was arraigned Friday afternoon on those charges. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Petrus’ death and her friend’s assault on Monday, when he will also be formally charged in that case.
Butler allegedly attacked the 61-year-old victim first, authorities say, and Petrus heard the commotion from a few paces ahead and intervened.
“She turns around and sees her friend being attacked, and she comes to her aid,” Turnbull said. “Once she comes to her aid, Butler turns his attention on her and ended up assaulting her and inevitably causing the injuries that caused her death.”
A woman who was exercising nearby witnessed the attack and ran to her car to call 911, Turnbull said.
By the time police arrived, Petrus had died from her injuries. Her friend was treated at the scene and is expected to recover.
Petrus appears to have no living immediate family. A neighbor who’d known her for more than 50 years told the Sacramento Bee that she was an avid gardener who enjoyed feeding the squirrels.
“We looked out for each other,” the neighbor, Lloyd Miller, said. “She took out my trash every week for me. She was a Christian and went to church every Sunday.”
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[H/T PEOPLE]
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