Homeless Man Helps Cop In South Carolina Subdue Unruly Suspect

COLUMBIA, SC — Cray Turmon has been on the wrong side of the law many times. The homeless Hampton, South Carolina, man has received multiple drunken driving tickets, resulting in the loss of his driver’s license, his job and eventually his home. But on Tuesday, he found himself in a better place with the local heat when his instincts kicked in and he helped a police officer restrain an unruly suspect at a gas station in Columbia.

Police Officer Ashley Hardesty, 27, was having a tough time with the burly suspect, Donald Songster Brown, 39. Police said he had punched a clerk at the S-Mart gas station in the face, threatened to harm her and a customer, and refused to let them leave.

When Hardesty arrived on the scene, Brown was in the parking lot and refused her repeated commands to surrender. The officer tried to handcuff him several times, and Brown slapped them away, police said. Pepper spray didn’t deter him either, and he was able to disable her taser weapon before the shock of it immobilized him.

Turmon walked by just as the scene was unfolding and tackled Brown, then held him to the ground.

“He changed the situation altogether,” Hardesty told The State newspaper. “He, basically, ended it.

“I didn’t see him coming,” she said of the heroic interloper. “I thought, ‘Is that a cop? That’s awesome. Oh, it’s not a cop.’

“He tackled him and actually held him – just like he was playing football,” the officer said of Turmon.

Turmon told WLTX-TV he “saw an opportunity to help this lady and I didn’t think about what could happen to me.”

“The impulse was, I visualized it was my girlfriend,” Turmon told The State. “I’m not going to stand around and do nothing.”

Without Turmon’s help, the suspect might have gotten away or hurt people, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said Wednesday as he presented the homeless man with some Christmas gifts and a certificate for his "extraordinary actions to preserve life and aid public safety."

"I really appreciate all of the officers," Turmon told WLTX. "This time I'm not on the other end of the law. I'm on the right end of the law this time."

Turmon told Hardesty that he was glad he was at the right place at the right time.

"Good tackle! That's what she told me, good tackle. I saw her again today and she said 'I'm glad you were there.' I said I was glad I could be a help,” Turmon told The State.

After years of living on the margins of society, Turmon is getting his life together. He now lives at the Transitions Homeless Center, and is enrolled in a program that upon successful completion will clear his record.

“It’s time to put my big-boy pants on and stop running away,” he told The State of his decision to enter the program.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Turmon change his circumstances. By early afternoon Friday, more than $3,000 had been raised.

Brown, who has a 10-page criminal record, remains in custody. In the past, he has been convicted mostly of petty crimes, many of them involving alcohol and drugs, The State said.

Below, read how Columbia police said thank-you to Turmon.

Photo: From left, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook, Cray Turmon and Police Officer Ashley Hardesty, via Columbia Police Department.