Sunday, June 5, 2022

Law-abiding Citizen Uses Gun to Save Innocent Lives


Excerpt from the Preface of Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms

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. 


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