Off-Duty Deputy WITH HANDGUN stops stabbing frenzy

[tt11758]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36923955/ns/us_news/?GT1=43001

By THOMAS WATKINS
Associated Press Writer

updated 2:29 a.m. CT, Tues., May 4, 2010
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Deputy Clay Grant Jr. was off-duty and picking up a couple of household items from Target when customers started screaming.

He says he quickly saw why: A woman was running down the cosmetic aisle with a knife in each hand.

Layla Trawick, 34, had just stabbed four people, including a woman holding a baby, slashing at shoppers in an apparently random attack at the busy store Monday, authorities allege.

Grant grabbed his duty weapon, identified himself as a sheriff's deputy and ordered the woman to drop the knives, he said. She ran away and he followed her from aisle to aisle before she surrendered.

"She finally dropped her knife, and I was able to place handcuffs on her," Grant said.

The Target store is on the second floor of a shopping center at a busy West Hollywood intersection. Shoppers streamed down the stairs and away from the building in a panic.

"People were really scared," said Rachelle Calello, a makeup artist who works in a cosmetic store next to Target. "Who knows if she has a knife or something else?"

A mother holding her baby was stabbed in the neck and was taken to the hospital, where she was in stable condition, Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. The baby was unhurt and all four victims were expected to survive.

One witness said she was shopping for a Mother's Day card when she heard someone screaming, "There is no witness protection program!" as chaos broke out in the store.

Katy Winn, a freelance photographer from West Hollywood, said the woman was yelling at the top of her voice.

"I think I heard (the deputy) telling her to drop to the floor. That's when things got really chaotic and started falling over," Winn said.

Grant was wearing a white T-shirt, camouflage shorts and running shoes so several shoppers mistook him for a gunman, adding to the sense of panic, officials said.

Calmly recounting the events at a news conference Monday, Grant said his training kicked in and he decided not to shoot because he didn't feel his life was in jeopardy.

"Her facial expression was someone who was lost, confused, didn't know exactly where they were," Grant said.

Trawick was arrested with the help of private security guards and held on $1 million bail on suspicion of attempted murder. It was not immediately known if the Antioch woman had an attorney.

Investigators were trying to determine whether Trawick got the knives in the store.

Good thing a COP was there.  The rest of us probably wouldn't be allowed, since malls are routinely gun-free zones.  Who knows how many of these defenseless shoppers could have been injured or killed had the cop not been there, simply because they are denied the means with which to defend themselves.


Geez, I'm ranting a lot today.

[Solus]

What a bunch of Sexist Crap!!..

Now, Cops will be profiling and harassing every woman running through a store with a knife in each had and slashing everyone they come across.

 

[tt11758]

What a bunch of Sexist Crap!!..

Now, Cops will be profiling and harassing every woman running through a store with a knife in each had and slashing everyone they come across.

 

Not to mention checking their immigration status.   

[twyacht]

They need to lock those knives up like ammo at Wal-Mart,.....they're just too dangerous...

Do they make a Taser that can be concealed,....

[fightingquaker13]

Good thing a COP was there.  The rest of us probably wouldn't be allowed, since malls are routinely gun-free zones.  Who knows how many of these defenseless shoppers could have been injured or killed had the cop not been there, simply because they are denied the means with which to defend themselves.


Geez, I'm ranting a lot today.
[/quote]
You'll see how gun free any mall I'm shopping in is if some knife wieding whack job shows up.
FQ13 who wil cheerfully face the felony trespass charge if the alternative is death. Plus, I have poor eyesight, and missed the sign, it was an honest mistake. I thought it said Free Gun Zone, not Gun Free Zone. I guess that's why I couldn't find the ammo counter at Macy's.
FQ13

[Sponsor]

[Timothy]

Gun free malls?

WTF........

[Walter45Auto]

They need to lock those knives up like ammo at Wal-Mart,.....they're just too dangerous...

They do at mine.......