In February 2013, Caleb McGillvary was interviewed and videotaped by local Fox affiliate KMPH-TV in Fresno, California.
McGillvary recounted he had been hitchhiking and was picked up by Jett Simmons McBride.
McBride had a mental break McBride then crashed his car into a parked utility truck, pinning a worker between his front bumper and the rear of the truck.
McGillvary went to help the man, while McBride remained in the car.
When a female bystander arrived on the scene to help the stricken worker, McBride attacked her in a bear hug.
Sensing the woman's life might be in danger and believing the man could snap her neck "like a pencil stick", McGillvary removed a hatchet from his backpack and repeatedly struck McBride in the back of the head.
In the video, McGillvary describes the hatchet blows with the words "smash, smash, smash" while he reenacts the overhead swings.
McGillvary recounts he was later interrogated by police and set free.