Northport Mayor Herndon Recounts Thwarting Assault On Woman

NORTHPORT, AL — Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon has been a public servant for a large portion of his life and Wednesday morning saw him undeterred in his commitment to his civic duty when he reportedly stopped an assault on a woman behind his survey company's office.

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The 67-year-old mayor and surveyor told Patch he and his son had just arrived back at the Herndon Hicks & Associates office from a project when his son alerted him to a commotion outside.

"A guy had thrown a woman down on the ground on 20th Avenue back behind my office, so I started running toward them," he said. "He didn't see me and he picked the girl up and was going to throw her in the car, so I started screaming and he put her down and got in the car."

Herndon then said he always carries either his mayoral or sheriff's office badge with him and took it out as he sprinted toward the car in an attempt to help the woman get away.

"I said 'police, pull over, get out of the car' and he just laughed at me ... then just took off," he said.

Thankfully, the woman did not require medical treatment and Herndon said prior to him breaking up the assault near his office, another person down the street had already called the police.

"Northport Police Department came by me minutes later and another came by five minutes later and they had him," Herndon said, praising the quick work of the city's officers. "I kept the lady with me and within minutes had three NPD units there with me, so I'm thankful for my son being alert and NPD's quick reacting."

The public servant, now in his third non-consecutive term in office, said he could not bear to see someone mistreated and would have acted even if he had known the suspect was armed.

"It worked out better for us than it did for him and I'm ok, I've still got sprinter speed," Herndon said with a laugh before taking a more serious tone. "My Dad raised me to be a man and I raised my sons to be men and we just aren't going to put up with it ... I ain't going to let it happen."

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