Armed Good Guys: Witnesses a Murder, Holds Attacker at Gunpoint

News stories of civilian self-defense seldom receive adequate media coverage. After all, armed good guys stopping violent felons does not make headlines like the lives of innocents being taken. Bias and agendas play their part, but the media does not cover an event that did not happen, such as a case where a good guy stopped a violent event before it it resulted in the loss of innocent life. However, these are exactly the type of stories we need to highlight to educate non gun owners before they head to the voting booth.

Armed Good Guy Witnesses a Murder, Holds Attacker at Gunpoint

Washington – Tragedy struck the Seattle Center on Friday, November 2, as a man’s argument with his former girlfriend escalated to murder. The woman, 28-year-old Gabrielle Garcia, was with their five-year-old son at the time and had a standing no-contact order against the father. In full view of his own child as well as many witnesses, the man stabbed Garcia repeatedly, inflicting fatal injuries.

The man, identified as 29-year-old David Lee Morris, then walked out of the Seattle Center Armory (an indoor dining area) and into the street, still holding the knife and covered in blood. There, he was met by Scott Brown, who works at Skillet restaurant in Seattle Center. It was Brown’s day off, and he was dropping by to say hi to friends.

“I have a concealed weapons license,” said Brown. “[Morris] was just walking away calmly… I got next to him and I pulled out my gun and stepped in front of him. As soon as he saw that I had a firearm, he started trying to convince me to shoot him. He just kept trying to convince me to shoot him, and I didn’t want to shoot him.”

Brown did not end up having to shoot Morris (although, based on the video and witness reports, he would have had ample justification).

“Both of his hands were bloody… He was just walking toward the man with the gun,” said Eric DeAngelo, a bystander who recorded a video of the full takedown (see below). “Kept walking toward him. I don’t know what his intention was.”

Morris continued walking toward Brown, asking him to kill him, while Brown kept walking backwards, keeping Morris in his sights for several long minutes.

“I just kept trying to get him to put down the knife,” Brown recalled, “and we kept walking backwards and backwards and backwards. Way too long. I kept looking around for police, security… the point was to hold his focus. There were people everywhere.”

At last, another bystander helped subdue Morris with pepper spray until police arrived and took control. In DeAngelo’s video (around 1:45), you can see Brown looking visibly relieved as he finally puts down his gun.

According to detectives, Morris had considered killing Garcia in April or May, but decided to try to “rehabilitate their relationship” instead. According to him, the relationship was “off and on.” He accused her of “having other boyfriends,” which he “feels is inappropriate.” Morris told detectives he killed his son’s mother “to make a better life for [him].”

There’s a stark contrast with Scott Brown’ words: “Me personally, I never wanted to pull my gun out ever, not on an animal, not on a person. I carry it for protection.”

The child was not physically injured and will be raised by Garcia’s parents.

State Sen. Kim Ward Defends Mother’s Home Against Intruder

Pennsylvania – “At 4 a.m., I woke up to pounding somewhere on the side of the house, followed by frantic bell ringing of the kitchen door bell,” Ward wrote in a “totally true, almost” Facebook post just before 7 a.m. Sunday. “As any red-blooded American woman would do I jumped out of bed (and) grabbed my gun… When I got to the kitchen, I knew the situation was under control because my brother was standing by the kitchen door aiming his cane and ready to pounce.”

Soon after the scare at Ward’s mother’s home, Anthony M. Buchanan, 24, of Washington, was arrested at another house nearby. He’d allegedly forced his way into the attached garage, where the homeowner held Buchanan at gunpoint until a township police officer spotted them.

That night, Ward — a GOP lawmaker from Westmoreland County who’s in her third term — was staying at the house of her mother, Joanna Renko, 79, on Pike Street in Meadow Lands. There had been a family party, and Ward said she chose not to drive home to Hempfield.

“I just stayed there,” Ward said in an interview Tuesday. “I woke up to pounding on the side of the house.” Someone then started “frantically ringing” the bell of the kitchen door “six or seven” times, she said.

Ward grabbed the 9mm handgun she legally carries to feel safe. While she thought the intruder was outside the door, she had a magazine loaded and a round in the chamber of the handgun, which is outfitted with a laser sight.

“I was ready,” she said.

She said her brother, Phillip Renko, 54, was up, too. So was their mother, who called 911. The lights were off and the blinds drawn. Electric candles in the windows enabled the family members to see each other.

Ultimately, the intruder didn’t try to get in. Asked how she felt about having been so close to shooting someone, Ward answered she “wouldn’t have just opened fire on him.”

“I would have probably done what the neighbor did.

“You don’t know him. You don’t know his intentions,” she added. “So, if he’s not going to stop when you tell him to stop, he’s probably going to get hurt.”

She said to get to the house, the intruder had to unlatch a gate, so “it was no accident.”

A police officer was dispatched to the house. He checked out the inside of the house and then heard yelling in a rear alley.

The officer followed the noise toward Hallam Avenue until he spotted the open door of Richard Cholak’s garage. Inside, Cholak had a handgun trained on another man, later identified as Buchanan,  who was cowering in the garage attached to Cholak’s house, the officer wrote in court papers.

Cholak was yelling to his wife, who, like him, had awakened to a loud bang!, to call 911.

Buchanan faces charges including a felony count of criminal trespassing. He’s being held in Washington County jail following his arraignment before District Judge Curtis Thompson, who set bond at $35,000. Court papers don’t list an attorney for him.

Do you have a story of armed good guys with guns that shows the importance of firearm ownership for self-defense? Share it in the comment section.