Army veteran fights off knife-wielding man threatening children at central

As Mr. Vernon inched closer to Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown started to back up, giving the children room to escape. He then pinned the attacker against a table, with one knife under Brown’s body. Despite his cuts, Vernon contended he won his?90 seconds of combat? with Brown, ?but I felt like I lost the war.? But that also alerted Vernon to which hand the attack would come from – when Brown slashed toward Vernon, the veteran, remembering his knife-fighting training from the Army, blocked the blade with his left hand.

According to an affidavit, Brown told police he’d been planning for two weeks to kill people and then himself. “I tried to settle him down…I didn’t, but I did deflect his attention”, he said. “Quick, like rabbits.” Vernon said Brown responded by slashing him with a knife.

“First rule of combat: Be fast and vigorous”, Vernon told the Pekin Times.

“He actually ran into the room yelling, ‘I’m going to kill a few people!’ ” Mr. Vernon told the Pekin Daily Times Thursday. The veteran was holding a chess club meeting with children between the ages of 7 and 13 at a public library in Morton, Illinois when Brown entered the building with the intention of mass murder. “There was no more talking”, Vernon said. “I needed to stop him from assaulting these children or their mothers with those knives”. “[But] I knew which hand [the attack] was coming from”, Vernon said. But thanks to Vernon, he didn’t get a chance to hurt them.

Vernon watched Brown’s movements and learned how he used the knives, as he was trained to do half a century ago in the Army. According to Fox News, the teen is being charged with attempted murder, armed violence, aggravated battery to a person over the age of 60, and burglary for entering the library with intent to commit a crime.

Many are claiming that this story would have had a very different ending were Brown armed with guns instead of knives and are using this as proof that stricter gun laws need to be affected. A library employee was able to help keep Brown pinned until police arrived.

Vernon, 75- a retired Caterpillar technology worker and Army vet-is recovering from surgery at his home in Morton, Illinois.