January 31st
We were headed out of town to go camping and had just pulled away from our house when we noticed an older woman flagging us down from the side of the street. When we got closer, she completely stepped in to the middle of the street to block us, all while holding her hand up and waiving frantically. As we pulled up, she came to my side of the truck. I shockingly told Mitch that her hand and arm were covered in blood. No sooner had I said that, Mitch shifted to Park and was out of the truck.
The woman was wailing in a foreign language and was gesturing toward her home. I grabbed my phone and ran over to the front lawn. When I got there, I noticed Mitch was at the front of the driveway in between a parked car and the garage door but I couldn't see what was going on because the car in the driveway was blocking my view. There was so much adrenaline running through me, I couldn't mentally connect the blood with anything and I was thinking maybe someone was having a heart attack.
I was on the phone with 911 at this point and the next moments were somewhat of a blur. I know that less than a minute had passed over these next moments, but it seemed like much longer. I ran back to the street to get the home address to give to the 911 operator then ran up to the older woman who was now sitting on a front step with a woman in her late 20's.
I assessed what was going on and explained to the 911 operator that there was an older woman with a hand wound and a younger woman with a head wound. They instructed me to have them compress the wounds. There was a young boy there and he went in the house to get paper towels for them.
During that time, I noticed that two neighbors had come over from two houses down and went over to where Mitch was. I noticed at this time that two Sheriff cars had just pulled up and the officers took off running to where Mitch was and I told that to the 911 operator and hung up with them. Not even 10 seconds later, a third Sheriff showed up and took off running toward the front also. Within minutes of me calling 911, about 9 police units, 2 ambulances, a fire truck, and helicopter showed up.
At this point, Mitch had emerged from the front. He came over and filled me in on his part and I was so thankful that he was safe. When he initially went to the front of the driveway, there was a man in his young 30's who had a bear-grip bite on the younger woman's head. An older man was beating the younger man over the head with a shoe trying to get him to release. Mitch rushed at him and took him to the ground. He had him pinned by stepping on one of his wrists and his shin. He had his knee in the guys sternum to try to get him to calm down. The guys other hand was pinned beneath him and he kept trying to get it out. When he did, Mitch saw he had a 6-inch steak knife in it. Mitch was able to get it from him and threw it into the neighbors driveway. At that point, the two neighbors had run over and helped Mitch to pin the free leg and arm and hold him down for the minute until the Sheriff's arrived. When the Paramedics finally pulled the young man out on a stretcher, I saw that he was a large man, easily the same size as Mitch.
Mitch and I both understand that God's timing is perfect in all things and we are thankful that we were there to help save those people and also that he used Mitch to help and spared him from injury.
