Manassas

Neighbors Honored as ‘Hometown Heroes' for Rescuing Woman From Brutal Attack

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Residents of a Northern Virginia neighborhood are being honored after they jumped in during a brutal attack to save a neighbor over the summer.

Robin Russ was getting his morning coffee July 14 when he heard screams for help coming from across Cedar Ridge Drive in Manassas.

He ran toward the trouble and found his neighbor being stabbed repeatedly by her husband.

“He was on top of her, had a knife in his hands — kitchen chef’s knife — and was trying to drive it into her,” Russ said. “She had both hands on the blade, holding it back.”

He picked up a shovel and began striking the attacker, but the attacker kept chasing the victim, throwing a rock at her head, knocking her to the sidewalk.

Another neighbor, Rick Troutman, rushed across the street, helping the woman off the ground and taking her to the safety of his home.

“I walked her, held her, guided her over to our house and brought her inside, and she was scared,” Troutman said. “She was like, ‘Lock the door, lock the door.’”

The attacker, Salomon Nazar, briefly went inside his house where three other family members had taken cover.

When he emerged, Russ had his own weapon ready.

Nazar jumped in his work truck and fled.

At the Troutmans’ house, Troutman’s wife, Sherry, who had some EMT training, started to treat the victim’s wounds. First responders arrived quickly and took over.

The victim was flown to Inova Hospital but has recovered from her attack. She calls Russ her guardian angel.

Nazar was arrested two days later in Charlottesville.

The city of Manassas and the police department honored the trio of rescuers, naming them “hometown heroes.”

“It’s humbling,” Troutman said. “To me it’s like I shouldn’t be getting this because this is what I’m supposed to do in the first place.”

Each says none of them thought twice that day about whether to respond.

“You have to think if that was my family member what would I want someone to do, and that’s what you would want them to do,” Sherry Troutman said.

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