Good Samaritan Helps Deputy After Traffic Stop Goes South
Volusia County Sheriff’s Office is praising Shawn Kelly for his selfless actions.
Time and time again you see a video of an officer trying to subdue a suspect only to enter a dangerous battle for dominance. The officer is left vulnerable and sometimes even out muscled by the suspect.
More often then not, the officer's only relief comes when backup arrives as most civilians are busy video taping and yelling. However, on rare occasions, a good samaritan enters the tussle in an effort to help the struggling officer. In the video below, we see Deputy Wesley Blum of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office begin a foot pursuitafter stopping a pickup for bad tags.
After running through several yards and a failed taser deployment, Deputy Blum was able to confront the suspect who was refusing to comply. Trying to subdue the suspect, Blum used his department-issued ASP but was unsuccessful. The fight turned into a physical altercation where the suspect had the upper hand. At this point Shawn Kelly, 39, of DeLand, Florida was driving by and immediately pulled over. Kelly exited his vehicle, rushed over and took the suspect, Harry Marrison, to the ground. Thanks to Kelly's size, both the officer and Kelly were able to get the suspect into custody without further incident.
The suspect was later charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Although having a civilian take action in an emergency matter can complicate things, circumstances like these are perfect examples where the help of the community is much appreciated. In the age where people would rather add to their Instagram Story than help an officer, it is nice to see someone doing the right thing. That being said, a lot of departments have varying stances on civilian intervention. If you are in law enforcement or the emergency services in general, please comment below about you stance on this matter, we would love to hear your opinion.