Armed Raleigh Witness Stops Ax Attack; DA Declines Charges

[Karacal]

A witness reportedly fired once after an alleged ax attacker continued assaulting a fleeing man in Raleigh, North Carolina. iStock-1334434980

An armed witness intervened after police say an ax-wielding attacker continued striking a man who was attempting to flee, ending the assault with a single gunshot.

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Raleigh police responded to the 100 block of Summit Avenue shortly before 11 a.m. on Tuesday, June 2. Officers found 39-year-old Emmanuel Graham suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body.

Graham was transported to a hospital, where he died. The man allegedly attacked with the ax suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

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According to reports, Graham and the injured man had been arguing before the confrontation became physical. Investigators said Graham obtained a weapon, identified in local reporting as an ax, and struck the other man.

The injured man attempted to escape toward Summit Avenue, but police said Graham continued the assault.

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Armed Witness Intervenes

An uninvolved witness reportedly saw the attack and believed the fleeing man faced an immediate threat. The witness retrieved a handgun and fired once, striking Graham. The armed citizen remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

This was not a case of someone recklessly joining an ordinary argument. Based on the facts released by police, the witness saw a man being struck with a potentially deadly weapon as he attempted to retreat. The attack reportedly continued until the witness intervened.

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After reviewing witness statements, video, physical evidence and the circumstances surrounding the shooting, the Wake County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against the armed citizen.

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman told The News & Observer that the decision was based on North Carolina’s defense-of-others law, which permits someone to intervene to prevent deadly harm to another person.

Defensive Gun Use Protects Others

The Raleigh shooting illustrates an important fact often ignored in debates over defensive gun ownership: Armed citizens do not use firearms solely to protect themselves. Sometimes they act to protect another person who cannot escape a violent attacker.

Police cannot be everywhere, and no 911 response can place an officer at the scene before every attack begins. In this case, the threat was unfolding in real time. The victim was reportedly injured, fleeing and still being pursued by an attacker carrying an ax.

The armed witness had only seconds to evaluate the danger and decide whether intervention was necessary. He reportedly fired one shot, remained at the scene and cooperated with police.

Responsible gun ownership includes judgment, restraint and understanding when deadly force may be legally justified. The publicly reported facts indicate that this witness exercised all three.

An armed citizen saw another person facing potentially deadly harm and acted. After examining the evidence, prosecutors determined that criminal charges were not warranted.

That is what the right to keep and bear arms can look like in practice: not aggression, vigilantism or needless confrontation, but the ability to stop an immediate threat when another person’s life may depend on it.

[Charles641]

That person who stepped up to stop someone from being harmed or possibly killed by some crazy with an axe is definitely a hero! I’ve only seen two people chopped to death with axes. I was in Korea on the DMZ when the infamous “tree trimming Aug. 1976”, incident took place. I watched uncensored South Korean TV of the atrocity. I remember it differently than Wikipedia. It was an officer and a sergeant that were chased down and chopped to bits. They both were wearing 1911 .45s, but no ammo. Hell’av price to pay for tree trimming Basically nobody in the detail tried to fight back. Nobody in work detail was harmed They were also unarmed except for the axes. It was terrible! There were many other atrocities committed by N. Korea along the DMZ during the time I was assigned there. I also remember the same pathetic responses of both the south Korean government and the US government. I stood and watched as the North Korean army positioned a tank battalion, (and a combat engineer company to lay down a bridge across the river), as the south Korean army Assigned to the bunker line in that area, rolled up 3, (that’s right, Three), tanks. As we, (6 or 7 personel), prepared to destroy everything useful on our site and evacuate, knowing extraction would be impossible. The ROK Company and our group were center kill zone, basically “sacrificial cannon fodder”, just like all the soldiers on the “Z” at that time.