A Marine pulled a drunk driver out of a car wreck, and then was able to detain him after the driver attempted to flee the scene last week in Columbia, S.C.
“I pulled him out of the road and got him standing in front of my car,” Gunnery Sergeant Stephen Whitaker told KOMU. “He told me not to call 911. He said he didn’t want to go back to jail.”
It was after getting him out out the vehicle that Whitaker noticed Charles Yelm, the driver, was intoxicated.
Whitaker called 911 and that’s when Yelm began to panic, and then flee to a nearby home that belonged to an older couple.
Whitaker pursued.
“I introduced myself to the couple, let them know I was a Marine,” said Whitaker. “I made sure to put myself in between them and him in case he was going to try anything.”
The Highway Patrol eventually brought Yelm into custody, and according to KOMU, he was also charged with attempted assault and property destruction.
The owner of the house, Kenneth Lammers said he could have probably handled the suspect, given the intoxicated state he was in, “but it sure made me feel a lot better to have a Marine there.”
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