 Free isometric realization of a finitely generated group

Every finitely generated group acts freely and properly discontinuously by Riemannian isometries on a connected manifold in any dimension $d\ge 3$. Choose a surjection $F_r\to T$ and the regular covering of ${\#}_r(S^1\times S^{d-1})$ associated with its kernel. Pulling back a metric makes the deck transformation group isometric. Uniqueness of lifts makes its action free. The cover can be noncompact and need not be simply connected; no claim about realizing every group as a closed three-manifold fundamental group is involved.