AKRON, OHIO — A very dangerous and violent incident occurred on the streets of Akron, where a mother was forced to use her own body as a shield to protect her children from her ex-boyfriend’s gunfire.
The 23-year-old woman is in critical condition after being shot in the back. The ex-boyfriend took his own life after being confronted by armed security and police.
Local media provides the details of what happened;
According to police, the woman was walking with her children at about 5 p.m. with a female friend and her child near the intersection of East Exchange Street and South Arlington Avenue in the Arlington neighborhood.
Witnesses tell police the victim’s boyfriend, who is the father of her youngest child, pulled up in a pickup truck into the closed intersection of East Exchange Street and River Street.
The man got out of the truck and walked toward the woman, first exchanging words and then getting into a physical confrontation.
Police say the suspect pulled out a handgun and fired several shots. The woman, attempting to shield her three children, was wounded in the back.
During this time, an armed guard working for a security company at a construction site had heard gunshots and went to investigate. He approached the suspect, and the two were soon exchanging gunfire.
According to police, two males and a female jumped out from two separate vehicles and tried to help the victim and her children. The two males wrestled with the suspect, who dropped his handgun and pulled out a knife, police say.
The two males and female helped the victim and her children into their cars. They drove them to the intersection of South Arlington Street and Clark Street, where they flagged down a police officer.
The male suspect retrieved his handgun and ran eastbound on River Street, again exchanging gunfire with the security guard, police say. The suspect was then confronted by a police officer.
At this point, it would seem that the suspect found himself out of options. He put his gun to his head and pulled the trigger. He died later at the hospital.
None of the children were injured, and the security guard also reported no injuries to himself.
This mother did an excellent job with protecting her little ones, but unfortunately was shot in the process. Had she been in possession of a firearm at the time, we can only speculate as to what would have happened. What we do know is that the quick response of the armed security close by is what saved her life, and the lives of anyone else in the immediate area.
If that armed resistance didn’t come when it did, this mother and her children could have all been killed.
A Good Guy with a Gun.
