{"id":8846,"date":"2015-10-17T08:36:10","date_gmt":"2015-10-17T13:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=8846"},"modified":"2015-10-17T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T13:36:10","slug":"who-sais-age-matters-75-year-old-veteran-saves-16-kids-from-knife-wielding-maniac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2015\/10\/17\/who-sais-age-matters-75-year-old-veteran-saves-16-kids-from-knife-wielding-maniac\/","title":{"rendered":"Who sais Age Matters! 75 Year-old Veteran saves 16 Kids from Knife Wielding Maniac POS"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a firm believer that regardless of your age, once that SPARTAN WARRIOR ETHOS or MINDSET is implanted into a person’s spirit, it never fades nor shrinks with age and will always be there when any challenge arises. I salute you Mr. Vernon, you epitomize what it means to be a civilian operator. -SF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"vet\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A former Army vet is recovering from stab wounds after putting himself between 16 terrified children and a knife-wielding teen determined to kill at an Illinois public library this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe actually ran into the room yelling, \u2018I\u2019m going to kill some people!\u2019\u201d James Vernon told the Pekin Daily Times Thursday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Vernon, 75– a retired Caterpillar technology worker and Army vet\u2014is recovering from surgery at his home in Morton, Illinois. He was leading a chess club meeting with local kids at the Morton library Tuesday afternoon when Dustin Brown, 19, burst into the room holding a knife in each hand and threatening the children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI failed my mission to kill everyone,\u201d Brown told police Thursday, according to a prosecutor\u2019s court affidavit that accompanied formal charges, including attempted murder.<\/p>\n

Vernon described the two knives as \u201chunting types\u201d with \u201cfixed blades about 5 inches\u201d long.<\/p>\n

The 16 frightened children \u2013 ranging in age from 7 to 13– scurried under tables in the library\u2019s conference room as Vernon stood in front of Brown.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Brown appeared angry as he focused his attention on the children. Vernon kept his cool and distracted Brown to give the kids a chance to escape.<\/div>\n

\u201cI tried to talk to him. I tried to settle him down,\u201d Vernon told the Pekin Daily Times. \u201cI didn\u2019t, but I did deflect his attention\u201d from the kids \u201cand calmed him a bit. I asked him if he was from Morton, did he go to high school. I asked what his problem was. He said his life sucks. That\u2019s a quote.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Vernon spoke, he inched closer to Brown. \u201cHe backed away when I\u2019d get closer.\u201d With a few steps, Vernon put himself between Brown and the conference room door.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave them the cue to get the heck out of there, and, boy, they did that! Quick, like rabbits,\u201d Vernon said.<\/p>\n

After all the children fled, the knife-fight training Vernon learned in the Army five decades ago kicked in. Brown slashed from the right towards Vernon, who blocked the blade with his left hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should have hit his wrist. That\u2019s how you\u2019re trained, but it\u2019s been half a century,\u201d Vernon recalled. \u201cFirst rule of combat: Be fast and vigorous,\u201d said Vernon, who never served in combat.<\/p>\n

The veteran\u2019s medium build was enough to overcome Brown. \u201cI grabbed him and threw… Somehow he wound up on a table\u201d with the knife in his left hand pinned under his body, Vernon said. \u201cI hit him on the (right) collarbone with my closed hand\u201d until Brown dropped that knife.<\/p>\n

Vernon said he was \u201cbleeding pretty good,\u201d but managed to hold Brown until a library employee removed the knives and helped to keep Brown pinned until police and paramedics arrived.<\/p>\n

At the time of the incident, Brown was free on bond while facing prosecution charges of possessing child pornography. He told police he\u2019d been planning for two weeks to kill people and then himself, according to an affidavit.<\/p>\n

Had he brought a gun instead, \u201cIt would\u2019ve been a different story,\u201d Vernon said.<\/p>\n

Brown was ordered held on $800,000 bond pending a Nov. 5 court appearance. He\u2019s charged with attempted murder, armed violence, aggravated battery to a person over age 60, and burglary for entering the library with intent to commit a crime.<\/p>\n

Vernon won his \u201c90 seconds of combat\u201d with Brown, \u201cbut I felt like I lost the war,\u201d he chuckled. His injuries include two cut arteries and a tendon on his left hand from blocking Brown\u2019s knife swipe.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read the Original Article at Fox News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a firm believer that regardless of your age, once that SPARTAN WARRIOR ETHOS or MINDSET is implanted into a person’s spirit, it never fades nor shrinks with age and will always be there when any challenge arises. I salute you Mr. Vernon, you epitomize what it means to be a civilian operator. -SF…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1247,1860,1911],"tags":[2577,2578,2579,2580,2581],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}