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For the best effect, please be sure and watch, in "FULL SCREEN" mode, this video report from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
I initially saw this at the AMERICA ON LINE web site, where it was reported by the HUFFINGTON POST web site.
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A veteran of the United States Marine Corps was able to stop a man early Tuesday 12 March 2013 from nearly kicking a woman to death.
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| CHARLIE BLACKMORE, JR. |
Thirty-two year old Charlie Blackmore, Jr. was driving home from working a twelve hour shift at 0430 Hours along Lincoln Avenue when he saw something on the sidewalk.
Blackmore didn’t realize it was a woman on the ground being kicked in the head and stomach until he got closer.
That’s when he jumped out of his car and sprung into action.
That's when Blackmore, who served in the United States Marine Corps from 2005 to 2007, decided to draw his weapon, a Springfield XDM 9mm handgun.
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| SPRINGFIELD XDM PISTOL |
"I said, 'Stop!', and he starts coming towards me and that's when I drew on him.
He started getting closer and I said, 'Get down on the ground!", Blackmore said.
Blackmore held his gun on the suspect and called West Allis police.
According to WITI-TV 6, audio of Blackmore's 911 call reveals the suspect tried to walk away when confronted.
"There’s a black male that just beat up a female in the street.
He’s walking away from me.
I told him to stop", Blackmore said on the call.
"If you come at me, I will shoot you", he told the suspect.
He says several times while waiting for police to arrive, the attacker moved toward him.
"I mean I've already made it up in my mind that if he came at me I was going to have to take him down and I told him that.
I warned him multiple times not to come towards me because he was a big guy and I wasn’t playing around and he didn't seem like he was playing around", Blackmore said.
Blackmore says police eventually showed up and had to force the suspect to the ground.
They then asked to see Blackmore's concealed carry permit.
"I put my hands up turned around and said, "You can grab it out of my wallet.'
Checked my permit, gave me my wallet back, and then interviewed me for their paperwork", Blackmore said.
"She had a really big laceration by her eye and it looked like her nose was broken", Blackmore said.
Blackmore didn't catch any names either, but said the victim told him the man is an ex-boyfriend.
"She was not with him anymore and he had stalked her that day or something and he attacked her on her way to work", Blackmore said.
Kenneth Harris, is charged with Substantial Battery and could face up to three and a half years in prison if convicted.
Blackmore says situations like this are why he supports Wisconsin's concealed carry law, and the rights of gun owners.
"We do good things.
Not all of us are bad or crazy gun nuts.
There are good people", Blackmore said.
The West Allis police chief says these types of situations really are judgement calls for gun owners.
While they don’t encourage this behavior, they appreciate citizens watching out for each other as long as they do it legally and are willing to accept the consequences.
West Allis acting Police Chief Charles Padgett confirmed that a witness drew a gun on a man who was beating a woman Tuesday morning.
He said everything "worked out well" in this situation.
"He stopped the assault.
No shots were fired.
He wasn't hurt and the victim was treated," he said.
"We are grateful it turned out the way it did."
Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr. praised Blackmore Wednesday, issuing a statement that read, in part,
"I want to get to a day when acts like this are viewed as a citizen doing their civic duty.
Criminals have got to be reassessing things right now.
They have to be asking themselves if it is worth it anymore, might they face resistance or be shot?
That's a good thing."
Clarke said the situation echoes the fact that "the police are not omnipresent" as he's said in recent public service announcements.
Blackmore agreed.
"We were ten blocks from the police station.
I always see cops on Lincoln (Avenue), but none drove past then", he said.
Guns have been part of Blackmore's life since he was young.
At age eight (08), he fired his first BB gun.
At fourteen (14), he shot his first deer.
In 2005, just before he entered the United States Marine Corps, Blackmore was outside a Milwaukee club that was closing for the night when two drunken men were denied entry.
The men started bickering with Blackmore and one of the men went to a van, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
Blackmore ducked behind a parked truck and was unharmed.
He now owns eight (08) guns and carries one regularly.
"I do feel naked without it", he said.
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