When Jack Palladino saw two men in a car behaving suspiciously outside his San Francisco home, he did what came instinctively to him: he grabbed his camera and rushed out to confront them.
Instead of fleeing, the man in the passenger seat tried to grab his camera but Palladino, who had it on a strap round his neck, refused to give it up. As the car accelerated away, the 76-year-old was dragged 40 feet down the road before the assailant finally let go.
Palladino fell backwards and struck his head on the pavement, suffering a brain injury so traumatic that he died four days later on Monday this week.