Jeff Zimmerman (left) with daughter Kiera Zimmerman (right) and their family dog (GoFundMe).
An Arizona man is recovering after an unnamed suspect attacked him while he was walking his dog.
Jeff Zimmerman, 71, was walking his dog through a park on the afternoon of Dec. 13 when another man got off his bicycle and started beating him. Fortunately, two passers-by intervened and got the suspect away from the older man, who was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Police told local CBS affiliate KPHO that they arrested someone in connection with the vicious attack, but were not sharing any information with the public.
Jeff Zimmerman's daughter, Kiera Zimmerman, spoke to KPHO to provide an update about her father's condition and to thank the people who stepped in to help the man she called her "ride or die."
In a GoFundMe posted by Kiera Zimmerman to help raise money for her father's medical bills, she explained that her father had been battling a brain tumor for the past 16 years. The effects of this chronic condition have only gotten worse since he suffered "severe head injuries, multiple broken bones, and trauma to his right eye" as a result of the attack.
While speaking to KPHO, Kiera Zimmerman described her father as "literally my ride or die. And he really is like the most loving guy. But he's the strongest person I've met in my life."
Kiera Zimmerman said that her father spent four days in intensive care before being transferred to the trauma unit. In her GoFundMe statement, she said Jeff Zimmerman was "in immense pain and is only at the very beginning of what will be a long and difficult recovery."
Despite her father's poor condition, Kiera Zimmerman said that she was "so thankful that he's alive." Of the couple who stepped in to help someone they did not even know, she told KPHO, "But the fact that they were like, right place, right time is literally an act of God. Like, that's incredible. He's okay because of these two strangers that happened to be there at the right time."
KPHO reported that the Phoenix Police Department was working toward releasing more information about the suspect they arrested in connection with the nearly fatal attack.