Banker, 61, who survived brutal stabbing in home invasion nine years ago crushed to death by tree felled by Hurricane Sandy

• William Sword Jr., 61, a married father-of-three, was struck by the tree as he cleared debris from his driveway in Princeton, New Jersey
• Came nearly a decade after the managing director of an investment bank survived being stabbed answering door to distressed stranger
  

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 15:16 EST, 31 October 2012 | UPDATED: 16:52 EST, 31 October 2012

William Sword Jr. who was crushed to death by a tree felled by Sandy

An investment banker who survived a brutal stabbing at his home in 2003 has been crushed to death by a tree outside his home as Hurricane Sandy’s vicious winds approached.

William Sword Jr., 61, a married father-of-three, was struck by the tree as he cleared debris from his driveway on Great Road in Princeton, New Jersey at 8.30pm on Monday.

Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad attempted to revive him as he lay trapped, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The freak accident came nearly a decade after Sword, the managing director of a New Jersey-based investment bank founded by his father, survived being stabbed after answering the door to a distressed stranger at his home, the Times of Trenton reported.

Jelani Manigaul, a 24-year-old senior at the University of Maryland, smashed his car into a tree near the home in January 23, 2003, just 24 hours after he told a psychiatrist he believed he was having a breakdown.

He entered the house, stabbed Sword in his upper chest and shoulder before he was smacked across the head with a frying pan, reports noted.

Stumbling from the house, Manigault came face-to-face with police responding to the 911 call from Sword’s wife. He reportedly slit his wrists twice before saying ‘kill me’ and refusing to drop the knife.

He was fatally shot by police.

Sword, who suffered a collapsed lung, underwent surgery and fully recovered.

Yet it left him with a renewed zest for life and more appreciative of time spent with his family, including his wife Martha and their three children, Gretchen, Hope and Will, friends told Businessweek.

University of Maryland senior Jelani Manigaul, 24, (pictured left and right) was shot dead by police after stabbing Mr Sword in his chest and shoulder in January 2003, just hours after he had told a psychiatrist he believed he was having a breakdown

‘He was a very well-respected, well-connected guy, an old- school gentleman in every sense of the word,’ Sword’s colleague, Daniel B. Rowe, added.

‘He was a righteous person who was very charitable. He’s literally got dozens of friends and business colleagues who have reached out to me and the firm since they heard.’

Sword graduated from Princeton University, where he majored in politics, in 1976 and joined William Sword & Co., which he went onto head in 1981.

The firm had been launched by his father, William Sword, who helped start Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions department in the 1970s before leaving to create his own firm. He died in 2005.

A man carries his dog as people make their way out of the flood waters in New Jersey

A car is buried in sand under a beach house damaged by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey. The hurricane brought heavy winds and record flooding on the New Jersey coast

A man makes his way through flooded streets caused by Hurricane Sandy in Hoboken, New Jersey. Two days after the massive storm made landfall many areas of New Jersey remain under water and without basic services

People survey street damage and debris left by flood water from the superstorm

Members of Army National Guards load a truck heading to flooded areas caused by Hurricane Sandy in Hoboken, New Jersey