A good Samaritan plumber in Seattle used a baseball bat against a suspected carjacker who allegedly attacked and killed an elderly woman Tuesday, FOX13 reported.
After he saw the suspect, Jahmed Haynes, allegedly attacking 80-year-old professional dog walker Ruth Dalton, Damon Koler grabbed a baseball bat from his work van, according to FOX13. Damon used the bat to smash out the back window of Dalton’s SUV which Haynes allegedly stole, FOX13 reported. (RELATED: ‘This Is My Neighborhood’: Good Samaritan Thwarts Burglary Attempt By Knocking Suspect To The Ground)
The plumber who stepped in to try to save a local dog walker from a carjacker by smashing out the suspect’s windows is speaking out about his efforts. https://t.co/gCWgNeVqK0
— FOX 13 Seattle (@fox13seattle) August 23, 2024
Court documents state that witnesses saw a pocketknife in Haynes’ hand as he began reversing Dalton’s SUV with the elderly woman hanging out of the vehicle’s driver’s side, according to the outlet.
Koler said that’s when he ran to his work van, grabbed the bat and then slid over the hood of the SUV, swinging his bat and smashing the back window, FOX13 reported. This allowed some of the dogs inside to escape.
Dalton apparently fell out of the SUV before Haynes allegedly put it in reverse and ran her over, killing her due to what an autopsy revealed were “crushing injuries to her torso,” according to FOX13.
Police said that Haynes fled the scene and drove 20 minutes south of Seattle, where he allegedly killed one of Dalton’s dogs and dumped it into a recycling bin, the outlet reported.
Court documents show that police later ran prints taken from the bin and matched them to Haynes, leading to his arrest, according to FOX13.
Koler told FOX13 that the former owner of his plumbing company kept a bat in the van, and it was still there.
“It was in my vehicle, there was a reason it was in there honestly, things happen in mysterious ways,” Koler said.
Koler said that he doesn’t consider himself a hero for trying to save Dalton, FOX13 reported.
“Not at all. Not at all…I hope anyone would have done the exact same thing I did,” he told the outlet.
