CARNEGIE HEROES Vet who fought attacker among 18 being honored
PITTSBURGH — An Army veteran who fended off a mentally ill man who tried to attack a chess class the veteran was teaching at an Illinois public library is one of 18 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, based in Pittsburgh, announced the winners on Tuesday.
James Vernon, 75, was in a conference room at the Morton Public Library with 17 children and four women when 19-yearold Dustin Brown burst in with two large knives on Oct. 13, 2015.
“He actually ran into the room yelling, ‘I’m going to kill some people,’ ” Vernon told the Pekin Daily News days after the attack.
The knives were huntingtype weapons with fixed blades about 5 inches long, Vernon said.
Letting the children and women escape, Vernon then positioned himself between Brown and the door and fended off Brown until police arrived. He suffered two slashed arteries in his left hand and damaged a tendon in a finger.
Brown pleaded guilty but mentally ill to charges in the attack and unrelated child pornography counts. He’s serving 32 years in prison.
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission was founded and endowed by the late steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who was inspired by stories of heroism during a coal mine disaster that killed 181 people, including a miner and an engineer, who died trying to rescue others.
The commission investigates stories of heroism and awards medals and cash several times a year. It has given away $39.4 million to 9,971 awardees or their families since 1904.
Four of those honored Tuesday died in rescue attempts, including 10-year-old Kevin Little Jr., of Milwaukee, who died from complications of smoke inhalation three weeks after trying to rescue his 2year-old cousin from the bedroom they shared when their house caught fire on Oct. 20, 2015.
Among other winners announced Tuesday: Kevin L. Hestleton, 44, of Tiburon, Marin County, rescued a woman from a man with a gun and a pair of pruning shears who attacked her in her yard in San Rafael, in June 2016.
Nathan Michael Stieg, 30, and Jayden Charles Concha, 14, both of Dickinson, N.D., saved a man from drowning and unsuccessfully tried to save a man with him when their allterrain vehicle broke through ice on Lake Sakakawea in Mandaree, N.D., in February 2016.
Merrill Naylor, 56, of Stephens City, Va., saved a 70year-old woman from burning in her home in November 2015.
Richard William Dorrity, 64, of Livingston, Merced County, saved a passenger from burning in a pickup truck that crashed and caught fire in April 2016.
Michael Lumahang, 39, and Jesse Haw, 24, both of Ottawa, Ontario, saved a 12-year-old boy who fell into the Ottawa River while fishing in August 2014. Lumahang drowned.
John Paul Hollyfield, 56, of Accokeek, Md., saved a 6-yearold girl from being crushed by an 80-foot tree limb that fell and crushed a slide she was riding on in the Moyaone Reserve in July 2015.
David Hammond, 64, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., saved a disabled woman from burning when her house caught fire in July 2016.
Eric Edwards, 39, of Lodi, San Joaquin County, saved a man from drowning after he was caught in a rip current in the Pacific Ocean off Watsonville (Santa Cruz County), in February 2015.
Rene Roy, 55, of Sherbrooke, Quebec, saved a man after his car crashed and burned in August 2016.