‘Phenomenal woman’: 86-year-old slain in attack awarded 2020 Carnegie Medal for heroism
Fusako Petrus died a hero. When an attacker rushed her and her walking partners on their morning stroll at Highlands High School and brutally assaulted her friend in April 2017, Petrus fought back with all she had and the one weapon she carried — her walking stick.
The attacker turned his rage to Petrus, beating the 86-year-old North Highlands woman to death. Fusako Petrus saved her friend’s life that day.
“She was there when somebody needed her,” Twyla Rowe, a longtime friend of Petrus’, said Tuesday. “It’s a shame she had to die for that.”
On Tuesday, Petrus posthumously received the Carnegie Medal, the highest civilian honor for heroism in the United States and Canada. At 86, Petrus became the oldest person to receive the honor in the award’s 116-year history. The Carnegie Medal is given to those “who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.”
The Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund Commission named the Sacramento-area woman among 17 Carnegie heroes “for entering into mortal danger to help others.” Petrus is also in a select club of women who have received the esteemed honor.
“We’re incredibly proud,” Vicki Butler, one in a tight-knit group of Petrus’ friends, said on Tuesday. “It points out again what a phenomenal woman she was. We’re happy that she was recognized in such an amazing way.”
The Carnegie committee in its announcement described Petrus as “a dedicated and loyal friend.” She was, friends said, but they also told The Bee that Petrus was also “pretty feisty for her small size.”
“That’s a tough old lady, as sweet as she was,” Rowe said. “It’s very fitting, but I’m not surprised. She should be honored. She’s not forgotten.”
Petrus was walking the same high school track she had almost every day for nearly a half-century when she and her friends were attacked the morning of April 26, 2017.
Their attacker fled after the fatal beating only to re-emerge later that day several miles from the high school campus after allegedly attacking another senior.
Neven Butler, then 18, was arrested on suspicion of murder in Petrus’ death, along with charges of assault with the intent to commit rape, assault by means of force likely to cause great bodily injury and elder abuse.
Butler remains held without bail in Sacramento County custody pending a November hearing in Sacramento Superior Court.
This story was originally published September 22, 2020 at 5:31 PM.
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