Civilians saving cops
The Last Church
ARMED CITIZENS
AND POLICE OFFICERS:
It was way back in 1932 that the American Rifleman, official journal of
the National Rifle Association of America, began publishing abridged
newspaper accounts of law-abiding citizens who had used firearms to
defend themselves and others and to protect property. The accounts were
condensed from clippings sent in by NRA members and, of course, the
magazine could cite only a tiny fraction of the "armed citizen" cases
that occur each year in America. Indeed, award-winning criminologist
Gary Kleck in his survey research places the number as high as 2.5
million.
There is an important--but sometimes overlooked--subset of these cases.
Namely, those incidents in which civilians with firearms have come to
the aid of law enforcement officers attempting to perform their often
dangerous duties. As the following accounts from the American Rifleman
illustrate, the armed citizen is the law officer's best friend.
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Things had turned ugly for Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officer Rick Wallace.
He had found marijuana on a speeder, but was overpowered by the man
before he could cuff him. Passerby Adolph Krejsek witnessed the
altercation and came to the rescue, using his own firearm to help the
trooper control the suspect. After helping subdue the assailant, Krejsek
used the injured trooper's radio to call for help.
(The Review Courier, Alva, OK, 1/8/95) (AR 6/95)
"It's more than fighting fires. If somebody is in trouble, we're going
to show up," said Sipsey Valley volunteer firefighter James "Buddy"
O'Hanlon. O'Hanlon was one of about 30 armed volunteer firefighters who
responded within minutes to an emergency call from their chief, L.A.
Marlowe, who had just been robbed and shot at outside of his Buhl, Ala.,
store. One suspect was spotted before he made it 100 yds. and was
cornered in the woods by the army of firefighters, who apprehended him.
Sheriff's deputies quickly arrested another robber who had been
identified by the firefighters. A third suspect was later apprehended.
(The News, Tuscaloosa, AL, 1/12/95) (AR 4/95)
In the finest tradition of armed citizens who take on crime in their
communities, Texan Travis Neel helped save a wounded Harris County
deputy sheriff's life. Witnessing the shooting by one of a trio of
Houston gang members after a traffic stop just west of Houston,
Neel--who was on his way to his pistol range--pulled his gun and fired,
driving the officer's assailants away. An off-duty sheriff's deputy also
came on the scene and joined Neel in covering the deputy, whose life was
saved by his body armor. The trio was captured after a manhunt.
(The Post, Houston, TX, 1/22/94) (AR 4/94)
While the situation ended without incident, armed citizen Michael Acree
stood ready to lend a hand when a police officer stopped a carload of
unruly teenagers outside his Salem, Connecticut, home. Noticing the
youths scuffling with the officer, Acree retrieved his pistol and went
out onto his lawn. When the youths saw Acree and his handgun, they
calmed down and the situation ended peaceably. Acree earned the
appreciation both of town officials and the officer.
(The Bulletin, Norwich, CT, 5/22/93) (AR 9/93)
Vincent McCarthy wasn't afraid to lend a hand when he noticed a police
officer struggling with a man and woman at the side of the road. He
tried to help subdue the man who was kicking the officer in the face.
Despite McCarthy's warnings, the man pressed his assault, and the tour
boat captain shot him once in the leg with a pistol he is licensed to
carry and stopped the attack. Neither the officer nor McCarthy were
seriously injured.
(The Daily Commercial, Leesburg, FL, 4/10/92) (AR 6/92)
Citizens of Ivor, Va., turned out in force when two men robbed the local
bank. After their car crashed while fleeing from police, the duo fled
into a wooded area. Local residents immediately armed themselves and,
along with police, surrounded the woods. The pair surrendered to a
volunteer and an officer the next morning. Said one local resident,
"Here, the feeling is 'Hey, you've got my money.'"
(The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, VA, 10/20/91)(AR 3/92)
A North Myrtle Beach, N.C., citizen was credited by the city's public
safety director with possibly saving the life of Police Officer Richard
Jernick. Jernick had pulled over a suspected bank robber's car after a
chase, when the suspect charged the cruiser and pointed a gun at the
officer, who was still behind the wheel. At that point authorities said,
the robbery suspect saw that James Beach, a semi-retired electrician who
had joined the pursuit, had a pistol pointed at him. Startled, the
robber ran for his car, and Officer Jernick was able to shoot and wound
him.
(The Observer, Charlotte, NC, 7/4/91) (AR 9/91)
When Eric Stewart of Oxford, Iowa, heard that an Iowa state trooper had
been killed in a plane crash while participating in the manhunt for a
robbery suspect, he got his revolver, jumped in his car and joined the
search. He passed a man on foot he thought might be the suspect. Stewart
stopped at a local farm, and while he was talking to the owners, the man
attempted to force his way into the home. Stewart captured and held him
at gunpoint until police arrived.
(The Press-Citizen, Iowa City, IA, 10/15/90) (AR 1/91)
During a drug arrest in Webster Parish, La., a sheriff's deputy and a
state trooper found themselves struggling with their two suspects. But
four citizens observed the battle and, armed with shotguns, they came to
the officers' aid, enabling them to make the arrests.
(The Press-Herald, Minden, LA, 5/23/89) (AR 11/89)
Dave Storton, a San Jose, Calif., police officer, was doing off-duty
security work at an apartment complex when two burglars knocked him down
and attempted to grab his revolver. During the struggle, one of the
assailants bit off part of Storton's ear, but the two attackers were run
off by an apartment resident who came to the rescue, armed with a
shotgun.
(The Chronicle, San Francisco, CA, 5/12/88) (AR 10/88)
Miami, Okla., motel owner Oba Edwards witnessed two policemen struggling
with a man they were attempting to arrest and saw the man wrest away one
officer's revolver, shoot and kill him. Edwards armed himself and fired
a shot that allowed the remaining officer to recover his partner's
revolver and fatally wound the attacker. The dead man was on probation
for assault of a Texas police officer.
(The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK, 6/7/88) (AR 9/88)
After a string of burglaries, a group of four Beaumont, Tex., neighbors,
armed with shotguns, handguns and bats, pursued a burglary suspect to an
overgrown field. Police and residents then joined forces to capture the
suspect, who had set some dry grass on fire to elude pursuit. A police
detective later commented, "In the rush, we didn't have time to get
their names, but we really appreciated it."
(The Enterprise, Beaumont, TX, 11/12/87) (AR 3/88)
The robber made a clean getaway and had pulled into the Pelham, Ala.,
service station. He found the service rather rude, however, as manager
Ed Milstead used a 12-ga. shotgun to hold him for police. Milstead had
learned of the robbery from a police scanner.
(The News, Birmingham, AL, 2/1/86) (AR 5/86)
A teller in a bank in Indianapolis, Ind., called out to Joseph Ernst
when a man claiming to have a pistol and a bomb was about to get away
with a bagful of stolen money. Ernst, a uniformed sheriff's deputy,
tackled the man. As they grappled on the floor, the robber tried to get
to Ernst's sidearm. But Samuel Hatcher, who'd worked with the deputy
years before, halted the struggle by drawing a licensed handgun and
holding it to the robber's head.
(The Star, Indianapolis, IN) (AR 1/83)
A sheriff's deputy pursued an armed robbery suspect to a Salem, Oreg.,
supermarket and fired on the man after nearly being run down in the
parking lot. From his adjacent residence, James Hicks was alerted to the
disturbance and armed himself. When the fleeing suspect forced his way
into the home, Hicks ordered him to drop his gun. Instead, he pointed it
at the homeowner, but was shot and killed when Hicks fired first.
(The Statesman Journal, Salem, OR, 1/11/83) (AR 5/83)
Police officer Chris Haldeman entered a Chambersburg, Pa., gold and
silver exchange to arrest a suspect in a stolen property case, but the
man resisted and a struggle ensued. The 220-lb. suspect had Haldeman
pinned to the ground and was choking him when storekeeper Ken Cummings
pulled his pistol and shot the officer's attacker in the leg. The man, a
known felon, managed to escape, and Det. Haldeman was treated at a local
hospital and released.
(The Morning Herald, Hagerstown, MD, 10/27/83) (AR 1/84)
When a pair of youthful armed robbers hit a convenience store in tiny
Carlotta, Calif., the residents formed a posse and gave chase. They
called ahead to another nearby town, Swain's Flat, and asked for help.
The Swain's Flat citizens called another town, Bridgeville, and alerted
Loretta Scott and Gloria Falor. Scott and Falor raised a posse which
waited at their end of Bridgeville Bridge. When the robbers' getaway car
was halfway across the span, the Bridgeville citizens blocked their end
with cars and trucks. Meanwhile, the pursuing Carlotta contingent
blocked the other end. Several citizens armed themselves, but no gunfire
was needed. Sheriff's deputies appeared and arrested the stranded
criminals.
(The Times-Standard, Eureka, CA, 4/15/82) (AR 7/82)
Joseph Dean of Winchester, Calif., and Wendell Knighton of McGill, Nev.,
were stopped at a rest area near Jackpot, Nev., when they saw a man
shoot a sheriff's deputy. As the criminal advanced on his car, Dean
grabbed a pistol, rolled under the vehicle and exchanged shots with him.
Knighton, sitting in his own car, opened up, too. In the fusillade, the
criminal was killed with no injury to bystanders. Meanwhile, Knighton's
wife and sister-in-law gave first aid to the fallen deputy, probably
saving his life.
(The Daily Free Press, Elko, NV, 7/30/82) (AR 9/82)
When James Hill saw police and helicopters searching the area around his
Norco, Calif., home, he suspected that there might have been an escape
from the nearby California Rehabilitation Center. So he reached for a
.357 Mag. revolver and a 12-ga. shotgun, summoned his dog and began to
search his own property. His vigilance was soon rewarded as the dog
located an escapee in a tack room behind the Hill home. Hill held the
prisoner for sheriff's deputies.
(The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, CA, 3/13/82) (AR 8/82)
A stolen car bearing three escaped convicts was stopped on a Kansas
highway by a state trooper. When the officer ordered the men from the
vehicle, they sped away. With the trooper in pursuit, the escapees
crashed in the town of Gorham; two were captured as they crawled free of
the wreckage. The third convict attempted to flee on foot, only to be
collared by several onlookers who had secured rifles from their pickups
at the trooper's call for assistance.
(The Morning News, Dallas, TX, 12/5/82) (AR 3/83)
Four young hoodlums were beating off-duty Chicago policeman Russell Ryan
in a parking lot when his wife, Carol, came to the rescue. Retrieving
her husband's revolver from her purse, she fired warning shots which
scattered the assailants.
(The Sun-Times, Chicago, IL, 1/26/81) (AR 4/81)
George Rayburn and his son were listening to a police scanner radio in
their River Rouge, Mich., home when they heard that officers were
chasing a trio of muggers toward their address. Rayburn grabbed a .357
Mag. revolver and leveled it at one of the lawbreakers, who was
attempting to scale a wall into the Rayburn backyard. Only after police
arrived and arrested the mugger, did Rayburn, a Marine combat veteran,
reveal that he is almost blind.
(The News, Detroit, MI, 1/6/81) (AR 3/81)
Corbin, Ky., motel operator Ray Miracle came upon state trooper James
Phelps attempting to subdue two drunken occupants of a stopped auto and,
carrying his revolver, went to the officer's aid. At that point, another
car stopped and one of two men inside leveled a gun on Trooper Phelps.
Seeing Miracle's drawn gun, however, they hastily drove off. Kentucky
State Police rewarded Miracle with their highest civilian honor.
(The Times-Tribune, Corbin, KY) (AR 10/80)
When trooper Bill Brashears stopped a motorist for a traffic violation
near Altus, Ark., the man pulled a gun and shot him in the jaw. Before
falling, Brashears returned fire, wounding the gunman in the arm, but
the assailant then jumped on Brashears and began choking him. A passing
female motorist saw the struggle, stopped, and held the assailant at
gunpoint until others arrived to summon police. She then rushed
Brashears to a local hospital.
(The Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, AR, 1/2/80) (AR 3/80)
DeKalb, Ga., policeman Tom Whittington was investigating a car accident
when two men jumped him and began beating him. Several neighbors were
unsuccessful in stopping the bloody assault until a man emerged from the
crowd, fired several rifle shots over the heads of the attackers, and
then shot one in the leg. Police arrived shortly and arrested the
assailants.
(The Journal, Atlanta, GA, 10/12/80) (AR 12/80)
Bus driver Robert McCort was driving from Miami to Detroit when he saw
two men and a woman holding a gun on a state trooper near Jacksonville,
Fla. McCort stopped his bus and started running toward the scene.
Several tractor-trailer trucks had stopped, too, and a woman in one of
them handed McCort a .38 cal. revolver as he ran past. Fired upon,
McCort, a member of the Jacksonville Police Reserve, responded with a
volley of shots which drove the gun-wielding criminal away. The trooper
was freed unharmed and the two accomplices arrested.
(The Florida Times-Union, (Jacksonville, FL, 12/15/80) (AR 4/81)
Timothy Willard, a 22-year-old policeman in South Paris, Maine, was shot
to death by a man inside a car parked in the lot of O.D.V. Inc. After
gunning down the rookie policeman, the man fired wildly at company
president, Robert Carroll. Carroll, an NRA Life member, drew his own gun
and killed the man.
(The Sunday Telegram, Portland, ME) (AR 3/79)*
Hearing the description of a robber's getaway car on the Houston, Tex.,
police radio, several wrecker drivers chased down the culprit and
surrounded him in a service station. Driver Jim Penry leaped from his
wrecker with a loaded shotgun in hand and held the bandit at gun point
until the police arrived.
(The Reporter News, Abilene, TX) (AR 10/78)
An unidentified NRA member became famous throughout Texas as "The
Hunter" when he and his son heard a distress call on their CB radio. Two
college coeds saw a Waco man shoot Sammy Long, a Texas Department of
Public Safety officer, and called for help. The hunter arrived on the
scene too late to save Long's life, but killed the thug with a 6mm
rifle. Upton County District Atty. Aubrey Edwards said the coeds and the
hunter requested their names not be made public and said the hunter
"deserved a medal" for his action.
(The Times, San Angelo, TX)(AR 2/77)
Ralph Festavan watched as a heroin peddler attacked a Shreveport, La.,
policeman and grabbed the officer's gun. Festavan ran to the patrol car
parked nearby and got a shotgun with which he shot and killed the
pusher.
(The Post, Houston, TX) (AR 11/77)
Cecil Collier, 15, was working with his father in a Wildwood, Fla.,
vegetable field when a state trooper rushed up and asked them to join a
posse searching for three Ohio criminals. The trio had broken through a
tollgate and evaded a roadblock formed by CB radio operators. Collier
was given a 20-ga. shotgun, and he headed into a nearby thicket. There
he found the hoodlums, ordered them to drop their guns, and held them
for the rest of the posse.
(The Tribune, Tampa, FL) (AR 9/77)
Dennis Koch was putting storm windows on his fiancee's house when he
observed a youth run into nearby woods. He passed the information on to
a police officer who stopped by minutes later and told Koch he was
searching for a burglary suspect. He gave Koch permission to assist him.
Carrying his pistol, for which he has a permit, Koch found the youth
hiding and held him in custody until the officer could place him under
arrest.
(The Times-Union, Rochester, NY) (AR 1/76)
A Missouri state trooper had been shot three times by two armed robbery
suspects when armed citizen Robert Riley of Tiptonville, Tenn., rushed
to his aid. Riley fired a small caliber pistol at the assailants until
they surrendered. The law officer was then rushed to a hospital.
(The Memphis Press-Scimitar, Memphis, TN) (AR 11/75)
Driving into Huntsville, Tex., after sighting-in a deer rifle in the
country, Tony Taylor and Jack Dwenger saw a police car swerve into a
ditch. They parked and ran over to the vehicle where they subdued a man
who was being transported to prison by a deputy sheriff. The deputy, who
had been stabbed twice, credited the pair with saving his life.
(The Huntsville Item, Huntsville, TX) (AR 6/75)
Seeing a state trooper shot to death while checking occupants of a car
near Crystal City, Fla., hunters Ralph Morris and Richard Starling
jumped from their pickup truck with guns in hand and ordered the two
occupants of the car to "freeze." Instead, one opened fire with a .22
handgun while the other stepped on the gas. Starling with a shotgun
blast flattened a tire on the car. When one suspect ran, Morris with his
semi-automatic rifle hit him in both feet. Starling then covered the men
while Morris summoned police. Both men were charged with first-degree
murder.
(The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, FL) (AR 5/74)
Wounded in a gun battle with a robber, a Texas policeman lay in the
street attempting to reload his revolver. As the robber prepared to fire
at him again, L.B. Jackson, Oak Cliff, Tex., covered the robber with a
shotgun and forced him to surrender.
(The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX) (AR 2/72)
Ronald Royce, a pharmacist in Elgin, Ill., called police when he
recognized in his store a man who previously had used a forged
prescription to obtain drugs. When a policeman came, the suspect drew a
gun and pointed it at the officer's head. Grabbing a gun from behind the
counter, Royce fired and wounded the gunman. As the man ran, the
policeman wounded him again and arrested him.
(The Daily Courier-News, Elgin, IL) (AR 1/72)
When Frank Carter, a Carnegie, Okla., farmer, saw three men beating a
town marshal who had stopped them for drunk driving, he grabbed a rifle
from his truck and ordered them to back off. The thugs fled, but were
later captured in a state-patrol roadblock.
(The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK) (AR 7/71)
Hearing noises in his store, grocer Lyle Smith of Orillia, Iowa, called
police and his son-in-law, Larry Adkins. Both Adkins and police arrived
about the same time. Adkins, armed with a shotgun, stopped two intruders
attempting to flee from the officers.
(The Tribune, Des Moines, IA) (AR 7/70)
Three men from Montrose, Colo., were on their way home from a hunting
trip when they surprised four youths beating a state patrolman with
rocks. The patrolman had stopped the youths for a traffic violation, and
the four boys had jumped him. The hunters stopped the scuffle and held
three of the youths at gunpoint: the other young man and a juvenile girl
who was in the car escaped but were captured shortly afterward.
(The Post, Denver, CO) (AR 4/70)
A prisoner who escaped from the Federal Reformatory at Chillicothe,
Ohio, while serving a stolen car sentence, was recaptured without firing
a shot because, Deputy Sheriff Dwight Beery reports, farmer Wendell
Bryant, who lives near Frankfort, Ohio, got his shotgun out and backed
up the lone deputy who answered Bryant's call and helped to trace the
prisoner. Deputy Earl Kuhn reported to Deputy Sheriff Dwight Beery, that
the prisoner appeared ready to make a break at one point but did not do
so "because of Mr. Bryant standing in an advantageous position. I
couldn't have asked for better assistance." The Ross County Law
Enforcement Officers Ass'n honored Bryant at a special meeting.
(The Gazette, Chillicothe, OH) (AR 3/67)
As Fred Boulter approached a Malden, Mass., A&P store, he noticed a
police cruiser pulled up and two policemen entering the store. Boulter
drew abreast of the store window and saw one policeman lying on the
floor and another staggering out of the front door. When three gunmen
rushed out of the front door and fired shot after shot at the staggering
policeman, Boulter pulled out a cal. .32 automatic and fired at the
three men who were trying to get in a car parked across the street. One
of the thugs took a bullet in the leg from Boulter's gun and fled with
another bandit as Boulter crossed the street and kept a bead on the
remaining man until police arrived.
(The Globe, Boston, MA) (AR 2/64)
In Indianapolis, Gerald Watson, 17, stood near a policeman who
questioned a robbery suspect when the suspect's accomplice appeared on
the scene and shot the officer down. Watson, who had taught marksmanship
at the YMCA, grabbed the fallen policeman's service revolver and shot
the felon dead.
(Associated Press) (AR 5/61)
In Saraland, Ala., the berserk husband of a woman charged with
possession of illegal whisky killed one police officer and wounded
another but, as he tried to make his escape, was shot dead by Carlos
McDonald, the proprietor of a nearby shop.
(United Press Int'l) (AR 2/60)
A gas station bandit fired five shots at a pursuing motorcycle officer
in a wild chase through Tampa streets, ran his getaway car in a ditch,
and fled on foot. J.R. Vause, working on his house, saw the shooting and
the motorcycle as it sped past. He ran inside for his shotgun, and set
off in pursuit of the bandit. When the officer returned, the gunman,
peppered with Vause's shotgun pellets, meekly surrendered.
(The Tribune, Tampa, FL) (AR 9/59)
Two gunmen kidnapped an Eclectic, Ala., town policeman and used him to
get enter the home of banker Carl Ray Barker late at night. One gunman
took Barker into town to open the bank's vault, while the other held
Bakeržs wife, child and the policeman hostage. When the time-vault
resisted opening, the gunman returned Barker to his house to await a
second crack at the vault. While they waited, Barker put water on the
stove to make coffee. Barker threw the scalding water into one gunmanžs
face, subdue him, then was able to get a shotgun, fire and kill the
other would-be bank robber.
(United Press Int'l) (AR 11/59)
Bill Cohen
>It was way back in 1932 that the American Rifleman, official journal of
>the National Rifle Association of America, began publishing abridged
>newspaper accounts of law-abiding citizens who had used firearms to
>defend themselves and others and to protect property. The accounts were
>condensed from clippings sent in by NRA members and, of course, the
>magazine could cite only a tiny fraction of the "armed citizen" cases
>that occur each year in America. Indeed, award-winning criminologist
>Gary Kleck in his survey research places the number as high as 2.5
>million.
Wow the entire membership of the NRA has established 46 cases between
1959 and 1995 in the USA where they have helped police. (assuming you are
looking at an old list..not that there havent been any new incidents in
the last 4 years) That works out to 1.24 times a year.
Tell me please how many NRA members lost family members, when some little
kid found "daddys toy" and started playing with it. Those stories make
the papers too, so I imagine someone at the NRA has a count.