By Robert A. Waters and Sim Waters
On June 2, 2017, in Ada, Oklahoma, David Cash Freeman ended a sadistic rampage, saving the lives of a mother and her infant twins. A young family man, Freeman had just returned home for lunch when a hysterical twelve-year-old girl began banging on his front door. She screamed that her aunt’s former fiancĂ©, Leland Michael Foster, was killing her whole family. Freeman grabbed his pistol and followed the girl next door.
As they entered the dwelling, he heard piercing screams coming
from the back of the house. Freeman followed the sounds to the bathroom, but he
couldn’t get inside because the door was partially shut and blocked by a
heavy-set attacker. A quick peek through the door revealed Foster sitting on
top of Freeman’s neighbor, Michelle Sorrells. The assailant held a twelve-inch
knife to Sorrells’s throat with one hand, while, with his other hand, he
attempted to drown one of the couple’s one-year-old twins.
The water from the faucet had filled the bathtub and still
ran, sloshing over onto the floor. Freeman screamed at Foster, demanding that
he stop his assault. He attempted to enter the room, but try as he might, Freeman
couldn’t push the bathroom door open.
The horrified neighbor watched through the narrow opening as
Foster held one child under the water, while the second child floated beneath
the surface. Adding to the pandemonium, shrieks from Sorrells and her niece
rang through the house.
Unable to physically intervene, Freeman aimed his pistol
through the opening and fired three shots. Foster, hit each time, slumped to
the floor. By the time officers from the Ada Police Department arrived, they
found the attacker dead. They broke down the bathroom door and rescued
Sorrells.
Officers then pulled one infant, choking and coughing but
still alive, from the water. The other child was not breathing. EMTs arrived
and began CPR measures on the lifeless toddler, eventually managing to revive
her.
The twins were taken to Mercy Hospital in Ada where doctors
discovered that in addition to pleural effusion, each had a fractured skull.
After several months of treatment, the children recovered.
Sorrells had been savagely beaten, suffering three compression
fractures to her lower back. She later endured several painful surgeries to
repair damage to her spine. She also had a fractured foot and numerous cuts,
bruises, and abrasions. Due to the assault, psychiatrists diagnosed Sorrells
with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Investigators learned that Sorrells had recently broken up
with Foster after a previous violent attack.
NOTE: Freeman was not charged with any crime. Although he had saved the lives of three individuals and was hailed by local citizens as a hero, the story received little press coverage outside Oklahoma.
Robert A. Waters is the author of Guns and Self-Defense with co-author Sim Waters. For 25 years, Waters has researched defensive shootings. He has penned four books describing in detail many of those cases. In addition, he has chronicled numerous self-defense stories in his blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment