Woman Gives Graphic Account Of Near-Death Assault By Her Own Son And Credits Armed Citizen For Saving Her Life

PHOENIX, AZ — A few weeks ago, a story came across my desk that was hard to comprehend. A mother was viciously attacked by her own son who had a long history of drug addiction, and she now thanks the armed citizen for stepping in and ending the assault. There is no doubt that it saved her life.

Her son, 29-year-old Hakeem Shawky, was killed by the armed citizen after refusing to stop his attempt to kill his mother.

The incident happened when the woman was driving her vehicle and happened to see her son on the street, whom she hadn’t seen in 3 months. She pulled over to say hello.

The woman, Victoria Mendez, was released from a hospital Monday evening and spoke with reporters. She gave graphic details of the assault.

“I rolled my passenger window down and I said, ‘Hey Hakeem, what’s up? How are you doing?’” she explained. “And he popped his head into my window and he says, ‘I just want to give you a kiss, mama.’”

Mendez said as she leaned toward her son, Hakeem Shawky – whom she hadn’t seen in about three months because of his drug addiction – he pulled out a box cutter.

“And then he proceeded to get into the car and started stabbing me and slashing at my throat, telling me that he was going to kill me,” Mendez said through her tears. “He grabbed within the wound itself that he had created with his bare hands and he started pulling at my esophagus.”

As Mendez fought for her life and screamed for help, she said a neighbor came to her rescue.

“He (neighbor) said, ‘Stop or I’m going to shoot,’” she recalled. “He (Shawky) wouldn’t stop. He (neighbor) shot him once. It didn’t even phase him, he (Shawky) was so high on drugs. And the second shot I heard, he (Shawky) went down and I was no longer being cut.”

Given the nature of this assault and the history behind the son, there is no doubt in my mind that the armed citizen saved Mendez from being killed that night.

Numerous witnesses were at the scene and attempted to stop the assault by physically trying to pull the son off of his mother. None of them were successful.

That’s when one of the witnesses, who was armed, ordered the son to stop the attack and drop the knife. Ignoring commands, the son continued the brutal attack. That’s when the armed man shot and killed the son, successfully stopping the attack. The armed witness is a neighbor of Mendez.