A person who happened to walk by an armed assault early Saturday morning on N Street near Nationals Park, tackled the armed man to the ground and helped subdue him until police showed up.
The good Samaritan was Tucker Shields. He said he was waiting for an Uber at around 2:15 a.m. Saturday morning and that is when he saw a couple that was being held at gunpoint by a revolver-wielding man.
“I looked down, he just had a revolver pointed at them. I wish I could say what I was thinking but I don’t know what I was thinking when I did it,” Shields told WTOP.
“I just jumped in and took him down. And the guy (victim) kind of jumped in and helped me disarm him. And then we got the gun from and just held him there till the police showed up.”
Police arrested and charged 42-year-old Eric English of Northwest D.C. with assault with a dangerous weapon.
In a release, police said the offender’s gun went off during the tackle.
Shields told WTOP that he thinks the gun was extremely close to his head: “Once I started tackling him, he went to shoot. I mean, it must have been pretty close to my head, because I can’t hear out of my left ear anymore.”
Shields said his experience as a high school wrestler helped him wrangle the assailant.
“That definitely helped. That and football helps for sure. I’ve had people that I’ve played football with reach out and say it was a good thing they taught me how to tackle,” he said.
Shields said that the full event didn’t even sink in until he woke up the following day. But it appeared that one of his family members was not happy with his heroic feat.
“Well, my mom’s pissed at me.”
When asked if he was a hero: “No, I think that a lot more people would do that than you’d expect.”
Glynis Kazanjian and Luke Garrett contributed to this story.
