BRIDGEPORT, CT - Alfredo Serrano, a Webster Bank Arena maintenance worker credited with saving an elderly woman’s life after she was attacked and beaten on a Bridgeport street last month, will be honored at Sunday’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers game.
Serrano will drop the puck at center ice before the start of the game at 3 p.m. and will be joined by members of Marjorie Meketa’s family. Meketa, 77, is recovering from severe injuries at Bridgeport Hospital.
“We’re very proud of Alfredo,” said Howard Saffan, president of Harbor Yard Sports and Entertainment, LLC, which manages Webster Bank Arena and the Sound Tigers. “He is one of the behind-the-scenes people who make this building shine. We’re glad he’s stepping into the spotlight.”
Serrano, who described himself as a humble man, said he doesn’t think of himself as a hero.
“It would have been on my conscience if I didn’t do something to help,” Serrano said.
On Thursday, December 22, Serrano was waiting in his car outside a Bridgeport convenience store while his fiancé was inside the store. He saw an elderly woman leave the store carrying two bags of groceries and begin walking up the street. A man ran across the street toward the woman, knocked her to the ground and began stabbing her with a piece of glass and kicking her in the head.
Serrano ran over and yelled to the man to stop. A crowd gathered, but no one was helping stop the unprovoked assault. Serrano pushed through the crowd and fought off the attacker, a 6-foot-tall man weighing over 250 pounds. Serrano was punched and thrown against a car, but stopped the attack. Police arrived and arrested the attacker, who police said did not know Meketa.
“That man (Serrano) is definitely a hero,” Bridgeport Police Capt. James Viadero told the Connecticut Post. “He put his life in peril to come to the aid of the woman.”
Meketa’s family is accepting donations to help pay her medical expenses. Donations can be sent to Marjorie Meketa, P.O. Box 102, Derby, CT 06418.
