As the 17-year-old accused of a deadly stabbing prepares to be tried as an adult for a brutal knife attack in the BallenIsles community in Palm Beach Gardens, one of the victims stabbed 32 times prepares for his release from the hospital next week.
Lucas Bancroft says he believes prayers helped his son Dane recover so quickly. The 13-year-old was taken to the hospital almost two weeks ago with stab wounds in fatal areas and doctors believe he is far enough along in his recovery to be released from the hospital.
"Every day I go to the hospital. He's recovery at such a fast rate, like watching his scars actually heal," said Lucas Bancroft about his son. "He did get a kidney removed and they repaired his liver and he did have a small lung puncture."
Dane Bancroft saved his mother from a knife attack at their home on March 12. The suspected stabber, Corey Johnson, 17, was a guest in a sleepover at the home. Police say he stabbed Dane's friend, Jovanni Sierra who was also sleeping over and killed him.
"That is devastating for him and I'm sure he's still processing that," said Bancroft about his son grieving the loss of his friend.
Bancroft said that morning his son became a hero. He took on Johnson and then jumped out of his second-story bedroom window. Ironically, a jump he's made before for fun as avid 'parkourer.'
"He actually escaped out of a second floor window he had been...he's very athletic. He'd actually been practicing coming out of this window for a few weeks," said Bancroft. "He was parkouring and it's like a 12 to 15 foot drop. He would hang outside of the window, full length of his body and then push off the wall and then he'd have another maybe 6 ot 7 feet drop. He did it just to keep his parkour going. It actually saved his life."
Bancroft started a "Help Dane Recover" fund on Go Fund Me to cover the costs of medical care Dane is going to need after he's released from the hospital and what it's going to take to support him and his brother after this tragedy.
"This recovery fund, it's for Dane and his brother Kyle and his mom," said Bancroft. "They are not going to go back to the house of course. I don't know anybody that would want to."
