Roy Exum: Samaritan Or A Fool?

  • Wednesday, December 31, 2014
  • Roy Exum

I am one of 460,000 Tennesseans who has a concealed-carry gun permit but I am the only Tennessean who knows whether I have my pistol with me at any given time. If you are a hoodlum I want you to know that. But as the last day dawns on quite a year, I find myself asking a question and openly wonder what I would have done if faced with the situation that confronted Aaron Kreag in Texas the day after Christmas.

Kreag, who served eight years with the Army in Iraq, was taking his wife to a movie and, as he drove down Southlake Boulevard near Dallas, he saw a guy beating a woman in a parked car.

He told CBS News 11, “My first gut reaction was, ‘Oh my God! This guy’s going to kill this lady” he told reporters, “so I stopped, went around the backside of the car, drew my handgun, and traffic came to a stop.”

The Police Chief in Southlake, Texas, wishes Kreag had not done that, urging others to instead dial 911 and wait for officers. But a sheriff in Tennessee told me yesterday that sometimes you don’t have a choice. “The law says you should stop deadly force and, based on the brief details we know, I think the man should be commended for saving a woman’s life,” said Jim Hammond.

Here is Kreag’s account of what happened: “This large gentleman just pounding on this lady, closed fist, you know, multiple times and heavy, heavy elbows to the face and neck” he explained. “I was yelling commands at him to stop assaulting her, stop assaulting her.”

Kreag said the beating stopped but the battered woman was hysterical and still screaming for help when Macmichael Nwaiwu, the 28-year-old thug who was now very mad at the interruption, got out of the car. “He turned his attention to the firearm and was saying ‘Don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me.’ I said ‘I’m not going to shoot you, just stay still, don’t do anything crazy. The cops will be here any minute.”

Holding Nwaiwu at bay with his .45-caliber weapon, Kreag’s eyes never left the assailant, “I told him, ‘If you relax a little bit, calm down and you stay still, I’ll take my finger off the trigger,” but said he was quite relieved when the police arrived.

The officers immediately disarmed Kreag and handcuffed him briefly before sorting out the story and letting him go. He told TV reporters that he didn’t know the victim’s name. “She thanked me and I hugged her. I stood there and held her for about 30 seconds. She cried on my shoulder and told me thank you. I told her I would pray for her and hoped things got better.”

Nwaiwu was taken to jail and Kreag is downplaying his role as a hero. “It’s my responsibility to protect myself and my family” he said, “If I can help out another person in the process, so be it.”

In Texas there are almost 600,000 concealed-carry permits and Steve Mylett, the police chief in Southlake commended Kreag’s actions but doesn’t want any copycats. “While we commend this citizen's willingness to get involved in order to protect a victim of crime,” he said in a statement, “the Southlake Police Department does not encourage the public to expose themselves in such a manner. Instead, we strongly recommend citizens who witness a crime in progress to contact the local police department by dialing the police emergency number 911.”

But Jim Hammond, the sheriff of Hamilton County (and one of the best lawmen I have ever known,) told me yesterday every situation is different. “A big guy can kill a small woman with his fists … first let’s remember we weren’t there, but I believe Mr. Kreag did the right thing. Sometimes when seconds count help is still minutes away. I think the incident was handled appropriately.”

“I hope nobody ever has to point a gun at another person,” said the sheriff, “but in a life-or-death situation, the law says you are completely in your rights to protect your own life or that of another human being. This guy did the right thing.”

Oh mercy. Perish the thought of ever being in that position but there is one thing that would have been worse. Much worse. What if Aaron Kreag had not been carrying his .45?

Happy New Year everybody.

royexum@aol.com

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