National Guardsman thwarts robbery attempt

I picked this up Ace of Spade‘s sidebar. From the Chicago Sun-Times, the story of Specialist Paville Simpson, 21, a National Guardsman who ran off two thugs and held another for the police in their attempt to rob a civilian in a Chicago subway station;

“I wasn’t trying to be a hero,” the military police officer who serves with the Headquarters Company, 404th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade said, “I didn’t have time to think — my training just kicked in.”

Simpson was on his way to his day job as a security guard around 6:30 p.m. and was wearing his World Security Agency uniform when the 28-year-old victim approached him and described the three attackers who’d just unsuccessfully tried to snatch his iPhone at gunpoint, Simpson and the victim both said.

Within seconds, Simpson had chased down and cuffed two 16-year-old boys to each other, he said. Then he squared off against a 17-year-old who pulled out what “looked like a real .22 pistol,” he said.

As Simpson grabbed his own gun, the 17-year-old — identified in court Sunday by prosecutors as Donte Jackson — shouted “please don’t shoot, it’s not real!” Simpson said. The 17-year-old pulled the trigger on the fake gun, revealing a flame, he said. “It was a lighter, but I told him, ‘You shouldn’t have done that, I could have shot you.’”

To borrow from Lawrence Vance in the following post, why would you do that to your family, Specialist Simpson? Just kidding…good job. We know why you put your family through your deployments and why you stand between the sheep and the wolves. America is a better place because people like you live here and put some things ahead of your personal safety.

Category: Real Soldiers