WAYCROSS, Ga. — The Waycross community is calling Georgia dad Dedrick Bacon a hero after he sacrificed his life for his daughter's safety.
The 38-year-old will be remembered at a funeral service in Waycross on Saturday.
"He's become a hero – to not just me, but to everybody he touched," said his sister, Idella Bacon. "I'm amazed by it, and so blessed and thankful to be able to call him my brother."
A Waycross police report said the incident happened Aug. 10 along Knight Avenue. Dedrick Bacon's family says he was walking back from dinner with his three youngest children when his 4-year-old daughter ran into the roadway.
“On impact, he picked her up and threw her – and he took the hit for her,” Idella Bacon said.
Dedrick Bacon's injuries were severe. He was placed on life support, but he died 48 hours later.
The report said a witness told police that he saw a man grab the girl from the street, then get hit by a car.
Waycross police officers said they talked to the driver who hit Dedrick Bacon, whom they described as very upset. The driver reportedly told police that she was driving 40 mph at the time of the incident.
Idella Bacon was working at the hospital when she got a call that her brother had been rushed to the emergency room.
“Sad seeing him laying there, motionless – it’s just, I don’t know," she said. "It was just hard, really hard.”
She continued: “When I learned really what happened, it put ease to me. It put ease to my heart, my mind that he took the life for her. He took that hit for her. He saved her so she could be here longer and live her life.”
“That was him, that was the kind of person he was,” said Dedrick Bacon’s friend, Gary Franklin. “It made me smile because I know that’s something he would do, so I wasn’t surprised about it.”
Dedrick Bacon leaves behind four children. Idella Bacon and Franklin are asking for donations to support his family and contribute to a proper funeral service.
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A GoFundMe has been set up to assist the family with funeral expenses. To help the Bacon family, please click here.