Heroes...Alive and Dead

[Ryan Ruck]

[Ryan Ruck]

Good shoot!

Good Samaritan Shoots, Kills Suspect Attacking Deputy

November 15, 2016

A Good Samaritan with a concealed carry permit shot a man who was attacking a Lee County deputy on an I-75 off-ramp Monday morning.

Witnesses who say they saw the whole thing happen told us a deputy tried to pull over a man near the Corkscrew exit.

The suspect took off in his vehicle, reaching speeds up to 100 miles per hour. Eventually, the driver got out of his car on an off-ramp and attacked the deputy.

That's when witnesses say a third person came over and shot the suspect, who later died.

"There was a lot of other lives that he was putting at risk, including mine and my daughter's," said Nicole Ambrosini, who saw it all happen. "I saw a car approaching me from behind at a very fast rate."

That car, a blue Toyota, "then swerved onto the shoulder on the left side and had to have been around 120 miles per hour," she said, describing how she watched a deputy give chase. Both cars eventually got off at Exit 123 - Corkscrew Road.

Witnesses saw the driver attack the deputy before they say another man ran up with a gun shouting at the suspect to stop.

"I saw the deputy and the suspect out of their cars with the doors both wide open and they were some type of altercation," Ambrosini said.

"He just kept beating him and beating him," said Shanta Holditch. She said the deputy was pulled out of his patrol car by the suspect, "throwing him to the ground and punching him in all different directions."

"I heard like three shots. He fell down on top of the police officer," said Mr. Smith, a witness. "After a moment, the police officer rolled him back over, got on his mic, then rolled over back on the ground besides the guy."

Holditch said the suspect "refused to get off the officer and the officer kept yelling, 'shoot him, shoot him, shoot him,' and then he shot him. I think approximately three shots were heard."

The scene covered miles from the I-75 S Corkscrew Road exit to where the law enforcement helicopter landed twice. Two miles ahead, Florida Highway Patrol and cadets were seen canvassing for evidence.

"I was just trying to get out of the way, but I got surrounded," Smith said.

Those who saw it for themselves were still in shock over what happened.

"The guy that protected, shot the bad guy, was a guy that pulled over on the ramp and saw the guy beating the officer. He pulled out his gun," said Smith.

It is unclear if that person was a Good Samaritan or an officer not in uniform. The deputy who was attacked was rushed to the hospital, but he is expected to recover.

Sources have identified the deputy as Deputy Dean Bardes. He is a 12-year veteran with the Lee County Sheriff's Office, mainly working traffic details.

Sky2 video of the scene shows two vehicles. Both cars remain at the scene and have been central to the investigation with crime scene technicians in and out of them.

The whole scene backed up traffic along the interstate for miles and closed the exit. Investigators remained on the ramp looking for evidence until around 9 p.m. Monday.

We were supposed to hear from Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott Monday afternoon. But 20 minutes before the news conference, the sheriff's office canceled.

Aside from their first update Monday morning, deputies have yet to release any new information about the deputy or the suspect. They say they're working to notify the suspect's next of kin before they release any information.

[Ryan Ruck]

Good shoot!

Good Samaritan Shoots, Kills Suspect Attacking Deputy

How do you beat a happy ending? With an even happier ending!

Man Who Shot Deputy’s Assailant Gets A Replacement Gun

November 16, 2016

A local gun dealer has given a bystander who shot and killed a man assaulting a deputy on Interstate 75 this week a replacement handgun.

“We reached out to the Lee County Sheriff,” said Mark Williams, who has managed Shoot Straight in Fort Myers. “He had to impound the gun for evidence. We wanted to donate a gun so this man’s not unarmed.”

The unidentified bystander, according to eyewitness accounts, shot and killed Edward Strother on Monday in Estero during an altercation with Lee County sheriff’s Deputy Dean Bardes, who had stopped Strother for speeding. The Sheriff’s Office is not naming the bystander, whom Sheriff Mike Scott has called a Good Samaritan, because the incident still being under investigation.

Sheriff’s deputies accompanied the bystander to the gun store Tuesday.

“I know he wants to stay anonymous,” said Williams, who also declined to identify him. “He’s a super nice guy. He doesn’t want any attention.”

Williams said the man had a concealed-weapons permit. He ran a background check on the man and then gave him a Springfield XDS, a handgun that can hold up to eight rounds. It was black, weighed almost two pounds and was made in Croatia. It cost $500.

“The sheriff is calling him a hero,” Williams said. “If they were comfortable with him getting a gun, I was completely comfortable with giving him a gun.”

Williams described the man as “extremely soft-spoken, a well-mannered, quiet guy.”

Scott wrote a Facebook post, applauding the bystander for killing the man who was assaulting the deputy. The Sheriff's Office released a photograph of Strother sitting on top of Bardes during their altercation.

“I thank my good friends at ‘Shoot Straight’ who realized that the hero’s gun was taken as evidence and immediately gave him a brand new firearm,” Scott wrote. “Above all, I thank the hero that recognized the imminent threat, rushed to Deputy Bardes’ aid, and ultimately stopped that threat.

“In a day and age where race is a near-instant focus for media and other pundits in police incidents, the fact is that this hero happens to be a man of color who stopped another man of color from further harming or killing a white cop; thereby reminding us that black lives matter, blue lives matter, and indeed all life matters. We at your Sheriff’s Office remain proud to serve and focused on the mission.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Boy Calls 911 To Ask Deputies Over For Family’s Thanksgiving Dinner

“While we do not encourage this use of 911... we are so honored at the invitation.”

November 26, 2016

A 5-year-old boy in Florida just wanted to give thanks to his local sheriff’s office this Thanksgiving.

Billy Nolin dialed 911 on Thursday to ask Walton County Sheriff’s Office deputies to join him and his family for their holiday dinner at their DeFuniak Springs home.

“Will you come over because we are having Thanksgiving. Thank you, bye,” he said to the operator, before hanging up.

“With all the bad calls we take on a daily basis, this one was a welcomed happy call that made all of us smile,” wrote Monica Webster, the sheriff’s office’s lead communications officer, on Facebook.





The boy’s mom, Landi McCormick, told WEAR that her son confessed to her that he’d dialed the emergency number soon after doing so.

“I kind of told him, ‘You can’t do this. You only do that for emergencies only,’” she said.

When two deputies, Damon Byrd and Aaron Etheridge, visited Billy’s house to thank him for his kind offer, she said her young son began crying because he “thought he was in trouble.”




“The cops had to calm him down, so did I,” McCormick said. The deputies told Billy they were “very proud of him” and that it was great “to know someone that young was still thinking about them” over the holiday, she added.

The officers didn’t end up eating any of the family’s turkey, but they did give the boy a sheriff’s badge and let him pose for photographs inside their patrol car. While he now knows that the 911 shouldn’t be used for non-emergencies, Billy also has his heart set on becoming a cop when he’s older.

“It just goes to show that deputies aren’t just about arresting people and putting them in jail,” Corey Dobridnia, from the sheriff’s office, told the Northwest Florida Daily News.

“Billy’s call brightened all of our days, and the deputies’ visit gave Billy a Thanksgiving memory that will stay with him for the rest of his life.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Gary Sinise spent Thanksgiving serving Thanksgiving dinner to troops at Kandahar AFB.

[Ryan Ruck]

Wow, if this isn't a punch in the gut I don't know what is.

Terminally Ill 5-Year-Old Boy Dies in Santa's Arms

December 12, 2016



A terminally ill 5-year-old boy had his final wish fulfilled, dying in the arms of Santa Claus after he was afraid he would miss Christmas.

Eric Schmitt-Matzen, with a classic long white beard and curled mustache, plays Saint Nick in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Schmitt-Matze told NBC affiliate WBIR in an emotional interview Monday how he answered the call to grant one child's final wish to see Saint Nick before he died.

"When I got there, it was my job to make sure he got Christmas," Schmitt-Matzen told WBIR through tears.

Schmitt-Matzen said he had just gotten home from work about a month and a half ago a when a nurse at a local hospital called him and said she had a very sick child who wanted to see Santa.

"He was more concerned about missing Christmas, than dying," Schmitt-Matzen told WBIR.

When he arrived, Schmitt-Matzen said he asked the unnamed boy's family to leave the hospital room if they thought they would get too emotional so that he wouldn't burst into tears himself.

The boy's mother gave him a gift to give the boy, "something he was always wanting," he said, toys from the children's animated series PAW Patrol.

"What's this I hear you're going to be missing Christmas this year?" Schmitt-Matzen said he asked the boy.

That's when the boy told him he heard he was going to die.

"Well, you're not going to miss Christmas, the elves already had your present, we knew you wanted this for a long time," he said he told the boy.

"Really?" the boy asked, according to Schmitt-Matzen.

He then gave the boy his gift "and that put a grin on his face," he said.

Schmitt-Matzen choked up as he told WBIR that he told the boy "When you get up those pearly gates, you just tell them you're Santa's number one elf."

"I am?" the boy asked, perking up, according to Schmitt-Matzen.

"You sure are, I'm sure they'll let you right in," he said.

The boy then gave him a big hug, he said, and "he just looked at me and said, Santa, can you help me?"

"And that's when he passed," Schmitt-Matzen said.

Schmitt-Matzen first told his story to Knoxville News Sentinel Columnist Sam Venable and it has since gained national attention.

He told the publication that after the boy died, his mother ran back into the room screaming, and he left as fast as he could.

"I spent four years in the Army with the 75th Rangers, and I've seen my share of (stuff). But I ran by the nurses' station bawling my head off," he told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Schmitt-Matzen said he was ready to hang up his Santa suit for good in despair, but found the strength for one more children's show.

"When I saw all those children laughing, it brought me back into the fold. It made me realize the role I have to play," he told the Sentinel. "For them and for me."

No longer wears the uniform of an Army Ranger but still giving selflessly to others!

[Ryan Ruck]

Well, an interesting turn of events on the above story...

http://www.knoxnews.com/story/entert...wish/95091356/

Editor's Note: Since publication of this story, the News Sentinel has done additional investigation in an attempt to independently verify Schmitt-Matzen’s account. This has proven unsuccessful. Although facts about his background have checked out, his story of bringing a gift to a dying child remains unverified. The News Sentinel cannot establish that Schmitt-Matzen’s account is inaccurate, but more importantly, ongoing reporting cannot establish that it is accurate. See full story.

[Ryan Ruck]

I'm hesitant to post a HuffPo link but...

‘Katrina Girl’ Inspired To Join The Military 12 Years After Sergeant Rescued Her

March 17, 2017


Three-year-old LaShay Brown gave Master Sgt. Mike Maroney the thank you of a lifetime after he saved her during Hurricane Katrina in 2005

In a rare joyous moment amid the pure dismay of Hurricane Katrina, an Air Force pararescuer saved a 3-year-old girl and her family from the floods in 2005. After the rescue, the little girl gave the man a huge hug that was captured in an iconic photo.

The moment left a lasting impact on both LaShay Brown and Master Sgt. Mike Maroney. The duo reunited a decade later and have kept in touch ever since. Maroney has visited LaShay, now 14, and her family in Mississippi, and they speak on the phone weekly, according to People. He even taught her how to swim.

LaShay said Maroney’s support has inspired her to join the military one day. She said she doesn’t know which branch yet, but Maroney supports her.

“I am proud of her no matter what she does and will support her in everything she does,” he told People. “I think she understands service and I believe that she will do great things no matter what she chooses.”

Maroney also inspired LaShay to join the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at her high school.

“It was very interesting and a challenge, and because I had never done it before,” she told People. “I knew if I joined I would have help from Mike along the way if I needed it, or was confused about anything.”

Maroney, who will retire from the Air Force this month because of an injury, will accompany LaShay to her JROTC ball on Saturday. He said that he’s going because LaShay and her family “mean as much to [him] as [his] own.”

Maroney, who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder when he rescued LaShay, set out to find the teen in 2015 with the hashtag #FindKatrinaGirl. He said that he looked at the photo of the two while he was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan to get him through difficult times.

When they were reunited on “The Real,” he told LaShay how much her hug meant to him.

“That small gesture, it helped me through bad days and dark days,” he told her. “You have a beautiful smile and it stuck with me and it’s helped me and has meant a lot to me. So I’m indebted to you. You rescued me more than I rescued you.”

[Malsua]

Good for her and him. Huffpo isn't 100% shit. Close, but not entirely.

[Ryan Ruck]

Marine Dog With Cancer Gets Tear-Filled Farewell

July 27, 2017



Hundreds of people in Michigan came together to say a tear-filled final goodbye to a cancer-stricken dog who served three tours in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marines.

Cena the 10-year-old black lab received a hero's farewell Wednesday before being euthanized at the USS LST 393, a museum ship in Muskegon, and carried off in a flag-draped coffin.

Cena, who was recently diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, was a bomb-sniffer for the Marines until his retirement in 2014. The celebration for Cena was organized by his owner, Lance Cpl. Jeff Young, who was paired with the dog in 2009 and 2010 while on a combat tour in Afghanistan and who adopted him in 2014. Cena then became DeYoung's service dog to help him with his post-traumatic stress disorder.

"My whole adult life I've had Cena," DeYoung said. "When I was 19 overseas learning how to be responsible, I had Cena. And now I'm 27 and I'm having to say goodbye to one of the biggest pieces of my life."

DeYoung said he's carried Cena across rivers and thrown his body over him while under heavy fire from the Taliban. He said Cena kept DeYoung's body warm during cold desert nights, and comforted him when he lost seven friends in three weeks.

As part of the celebration, DeYoung took his dog on one last ride in a topless Jeep that was decorated and named "Cancer Response Team."

"It started off with my basically wanting to go to a dealership and wanting to borrow a Jeep for a day and really small to a community tribute or a community parade for him and he's truly deserved it all," DeYoung said. "The support, all the love people are giving him, he can see it and he can feel it."

The ceremony was attended by the U.S. Marine Corps League, Michigan State Police, Muskegon County Sheriff's Office, Muskegon City Police, Muskegon Fire Department and officers from several other departments, including a canine officer named Rex. Attendees gave one final three-volley salute with "Taps" playing in the background for Cena, who was wearing a decorated blue Marine vest.

"Lord, it is with heavy hearts that we are sending another Marine to you today," said chaplain Wesley Spyke as he addressed the crowd in prayer.

A GoFundMe page was set up for donations to help build a headstone for Cena.

"Any dog that served overseas deserves exactly what I've done for Cena, if not more," DeYoung said.

Semper Fi Devil Dog...

[Ryan Ruck]

Jerry Yellin, 93, Dies; Flew the Last World War II Combat Mission

December 24, 2017


Jerry Yellin, who flew a combat mission over Japan in his plane Dorrie R on the day Emperor Hirohito surrendered, at Culpeper Regional Airport in Virginia in May 2015 for an observation of the 70th anniversary of V-E Day.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, plunging the United States into World War II, Jerry Yellin was a teenager living with his family in Hillside, N.J.

Having been intrigued by flight since he was a youngster — he constructed planes modeled on World War I aircraft — he joined the Army Air Corps in February 1942, on his 18th birthday, and became a fighter pilot.

On Aug. 15, 1945 (Aug. 14 in the United States), Lieutenant Yellin was leading an attack on Japanese airfields by four P-51 Mustang fighters from his 78th Fighter Squadron, as American airstrikes on Japan continued even after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki earlier that month.

In the days following the atomic raids, all aircraft pounding Japan were to receive a coded signal from their bases if a Japanese surrender came. If one did, they were to halt their missions and turn back.

Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender at noon local time on Aug. 15, just as Lieutenant Yellin, flying from his base on Iwo Jima, was leading his four-plane attack.

But as he told it years later, for some reason that he could never determine his planes did not receive the cease-fire message that had gone out to American aircraft at the time.

It was only when he returned to Iwo Jima some three hours after completing the mission that he learned the war had formally ended while he was still blasting away.

Mr. Yellin died on Thursday in Florida at 93. His death was announced by his son Steven.

In paying tribute to him, the Air Force’s chief of staff, Gen. David Goldfein, called him the fighter pilot “who flew the last combat mission of World War II.”

But for Mr. Yellin, the war had not truly ended. He was afflicted by what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder, having witnessed the carnage on Iwo Jima and later having 16 members of his squadron killed on missions.

Iwo Jima was needed as a base for fighter planes that would escort long-range B-29 bombers based in the Mariana Islands while they raided Japan. It was conquered with a fearsome toll on both sides.

“Body parts were everywhere and the smell of death permeated the air,” Mr. Yellin recalled in a May 2014 interview with the Library of Congress for its Veterans History Project, telling of his first weeks on Iwo Jima after the Marines had seized its airstrips from the Japanese.

Mr. Yellin, who later flew 19 missions over Japan, was especially grieved by a very personal loss on that final raid of the war.

His wingman, Lt. Philip Schlamberg, a 19-year-old Brooklyn native he had helped mentor, never emerged from a cloud embankment that the four Mustangs of the 78th Squadron encountered upon crossing the coast of Japan en route home. Mr. Yellin speculated that he had been shot down by Japanese antiaircraft fire.

“Because of our common Jewish heritage and because he was one of our younger pilots, I had naturally taken Phil under my wing,” Mr. Yellin recalled in “The Last Fighter Pilot,” a biography written by Don Brown with Mr. Yellin’s collaboration and published this year.

Earlier in 1945, in another particularly searing episode, a less experienced pilot was lost on a mission to Japan while flying Mr. Yellin’s Mustang, which he had named Dorrie R for his girlfriend, whom he had met while training in California. The unit dentist had grounded him that day to carry out the urgent removal of painful wisdom teeth.

Mr. Yellin was discharged from the military in December 1945 as a captain and received the Distinguished Flying Cross.

And then his battles continued.

“I was angry,” he said in the Library of Congress interview. “I could go to college. I had no desire to do that. I couldn’t hold a job. I had many, many jobs. I was depressed. Every symptom that they now diagnose as post-traumatic stress disorder, I had.”

Mr. Yellin married Helene Schulman in 1949, and they began raising a family even while his emotional distress continued. It was not until he embraced Transcendental Meditation in 1975, at the suggestion of his wife, that he was able to alleviate his stress and find a productive life.

Jerome Yellin was born on Feb. 15, 1924, in Newark. After graduating from high school, he worked seven days a week in a steel mill to earn money for college. Then came Pearl Harbor Sunday.

In his later years he helped fellow veterans, from World War II and the wars that followed, in their efforts to overcome combat-related trauma.

Mr. Yellin and his wife, who died in 2015, had four sons, David, Steven, Michael and Robert. They survive him, as do six grandchildren and a sister, Maxine Giannini.

In 1983, when Mr. Yellin was a consultant to some banks in California, he was asked to visit Japan to speak about investments in real estate in the United States. He was reluctant to make the trip, having demonized the Japanese during the war. But his wife wanted to go, and when he got to Tokyo, he later said, he was impressed by the “well-dressed, well-mannered, beautiful-looking people.”

The Yellins sent their son Robert, a college senior at the time, to visit Japan in 1984. He loved the country and married a Japanese woman, Takako Yamakawa, four years later. The Yellins attended the wedding and made many subsequent visits to Japan to see the couple and their three children.

Takako’s father, Taro, had been a pilot in World War II. But Jerry Yellin and Taro Yamakawa found they could surmount the hatreds spawned by the war and, as Mr. Yellin once put it, “We became brothers, he and I.”

“I went from thinking a group of people were my enemy to finding my best friend,” Mr. Yellin told People magazine in 2017. “It’s a lesson to remember that at the end of the day we are all human and have so much love to give.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Woman Describes Decision To Shoot Man Attacking Deputy

December 18, 2017


Sgt. Randy Harkness (left) and April Adamson

A woman who rushed to help a Dawson County deputy in trouble shared her story with Channel 2 Action News.

April Adamson was preparing to get gas at a Dawsonville Chevron gas station Dec. 5, when she sensed something was wrong, she told the news station.

That’s when she saw Sgt. Randy Harkness fall to the ground.

She fired twice at the suspect, 30-year-old Justin Alan Foster, and hit him at least once, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.

Foster had just received a courtesy ride from Harkness, a 24-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, to the gas station and Harkness was in the process of giving Foster money when he was attacked, officials said.

“He had both hands on the officer's gun trying to get it out of his holster,” Adamson said.

Adamson said she called 911 but had no time to wait for deputies to respond. She believed Foster was about to kill Harkness, she told Channel 2.

“As soon as the guy hit the officer I pushed the call button, reached into my glove box, grabbed the gun and came out,” Adamson said.

When Foster didn’t back off, Adamson said she fired a warning shot in the grass.

“As he took off toward Ga. 400, I fired two more shots at him,” Adamson said.

The woman told Channel 2 that her parents both worked as police officers and her instinct was to protect Harkness.

“If he hit this officer and did damage to him I knew he was going to do something to someone else so I couldn’t let that happen,” she said.

Adamson stayed with the deputy as authorities chased Foster, who allegedly tried to carjack three other people before he was arrested.

Other good Samaritans held Foster down until police arrived. He was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound.

Foster faces 14 charges including aggravated assault with intent to murder, attempted removal of a weapon from a public official and obstruction.

Adamson told Channel 2 she and Harkness are now lifelong friends.

“It’s kind of an emotional thing,” she said. “We all kind of bonded from this experience.”