Carnegie Hero Fund Honors Heroes Among Us

Veteran who fought library attacker among 18 Carnegie Heroes

Associtated Press

Joe Mandak

September 19, 2017

An Army veteran who fended off a mentally ill man who tried to attack a chess class the veteran was teaching at an Illinois public library is one of 18 people being honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, based in Pittsburgh, announced the winners on Tuesday.

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, James O. Vernon, an Army veteran who fended off a mentally ill man's attempt to attack a chess class that Vernon was teaching at an Illinois public library, recovers from injuries he suffered fighting off the knife-wielding man, as he sits in his home in Morton, Ill. Vernon is among 18 recipients of the Carnegie Medal for heroism announced Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, by the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, which awards the medals several times a year. (Robert Downen/Pekin Daily Times via AP, File)

James O. Vernon , 75, was in a conference room at the Morton Public Library with 17 children and four women when 19-year-old Dustin Brown burst in with two large knives on Oct. 13, 2015.

"He actually ran into the room yelling, 'I'm going to kill some people,'" Vernon told the Pekin Daily News days after the attack.

The knives were hunting-type weapons with fixed blades about 5 inches long, Vernon said.

"I can't let this happen," Vernon told The Associated Press at the time.

Letting the children and women escape, Vernon then positioned himself between Brown and the door and fended off Brown until police arrived. He suffered two slashed arteries in his left hand and damaged a tendon in a finger.

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