Concealed Carrier Stops Freeway Attacker Without Firing a Shot

I report on a lot of defensive gun use stories, and many of them don’t end well for the bad guys. And sometimes even the good guys. So it is nice when I come across an incident where no one gets hurt or killed but still provides us with another example of how a good guy with a gun can stop violent attackers.

This story comes to us from Everett, Washington. This past Saturday afternoon, while drivers were commuting on I-5, a man standing on the shoulder started attacking vehicles passing by.

“Investigators say he damaged as many as ten cars around noon when he hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, wooden blocks, metal pipes, and even a trailer hitch at drivers on the freeway.” – via Komo News

If you watch the video here, you can hear the frantic call by one of the victims.

And that is where the good samaritan steps in. 41-year-old Jacob Marshall, who has a Washington License to Carry, saw what was taking place and decided to take action. Marshall and his father pulled over to the shoulder and confronted the man attacking the vehicles. Marshall drew his concealed carry pistol and aimed it at the attacker’s head, who was still holding a chunk of metal in his hand.

At that point, Marshall told the attacker that he was under citizen’s arrest and ordered him to the ground. The man went down but then jumped up again, trying to fight Marshall’s father. Marshall gave the gun to his father and then physically walked him off the interstate to a nearby residential street where police arrested him.

Now, you might be reading this thinking, citizen’s arrest? Is that even legal? Yes, citizen’s arrests are legal, but the laws vary from state to state. In Washington, you are allowed to conduct a citizen’s arrest if you witness a misdemeanor or felony. For more details, click here.

And all I have to say to Jacob Marshall is, “Good job!” I have talked about this before, but concealed carriers need to determine who they are willing to protect when using a gun for self-defense. Just yourself? How about a family member? Friends? Or are you willing to interject yourself into a situation like this to help protect a complete stranger?

Hat off to Marshall for stepping in to protect a complete stranger. Who knows how this would have ended if he decided to keep driving. The attacker tried to get into one victim’s car and then threw a trailer hitch shattering her front windshield. He then proceeded to pick up the trailer hitch and bust out her back window, so there was clearly an escalation of violence. What would he have done next? Luckily for her, an armed citizen came to her aid.