After the children were hurried out by a mother in the room, Brown lunged at Vernon stabbing him in the palm of the hand when he tried to block him. “He was holding two knives”.
Advertisement
The attacker wanted to “kill a few people” inside the library, where he encountered the army veteran, 16 children and their mothers inside. I tried to settle him down.
As frightened children hid under the table, Vernon first tried to take control by placating the man.
“He is that type of a person and that’s one of the reasons I married him”, she said. I asked him if he was from Morton, did he go to high school. He said his life sucks. “There was no more talking”, Vernon said. This opened up a small gap in the doorway, enough room for the 16 children to escape. Vernon recalls that it was done to intimidate and scare him and Vernon admitted that the ploy by Brown had worked.
“I gave them the cue to get the heck out of there, and, boy, they did that!”
Vernon, who spoke to The Washington Post on Friday afternoon, said he was scared throughout the incident Tuesday, but was exclusively focused on saving the kids.
Plus, you only need one arm to play the game, he said.
Acting fast, Mr Vernon grabbed hold of Brown and threw him on to a table before pinning him down. Vernon then struck Brown, who dropped the other knife.
Mr. Vernon was able to keep the teen pinned down until police and paramedics arrived. He held Brown down until police arrived. Vernon lifted his hand to block him and was stabbed deep into his palm and through two arteries.
19-year-old Dustin Brown allegedly walked into a public library in Illinois with the intent to “kill everyone”.
According to a prosector’s court affidavit he’d been planning on killing people and himself for the past two weeks.
Brown was free on bond while facing prosecution charges of possessing child pornography when he entered the library.
An unarmed, elderly veteran is being hailed as a hero for fighting off a knife attack by a teenager bent on murdering children.
Advertisement
Vernon is now recovering from the lacerations he sustained to his left arm and the ensuing corrective surgery in his Morton, Illinois home.
