The latest “good guy with a gun” story comes out of Iowa, but it is actually a “good gal with a gun” story. A couple attempted to abduct a child, but an armed mother immediately put the kibosh on the kidnapping attempt.
Michael Ernest Ross, 43, and Laurie Lynn Potter, 57, repeatedly walked in front of the entrance to the Hubbell Tower Apartments in Des Moines on Jan. 5. Shay Lindberg – the manager at the Hubbell Tower Apartments – noticed the duo and confronted the couple about lurking around the front door of the building. At the time, Lindberg had her young son by her side.
Suddenly, one of the suspects attempted to snatch the child. A struggle ensued. However, the mother was packing heat. The couple fled the kidnapping attempt after seeing that the woman was armed.
Lindberg then called Will Hunter of Per Mar Security Services. Lindberg described the menacing pair, and Hunter identified the couple after about three sentences. They trailed the couple and called the police to inform them of the abduction attempt.
Sergeant Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department told KDSM-TV, “To have that security guard there in that spot at that moment was probably the most critical piece to this because he was able to keep an eye on both of these people as they made their way through the skywalk, down to a restaurant and onto a bus.”
Potter and Ross were arrested and charged with felony child stealing on Jan. 5, according to Polk County Jail records. Potter was already on probation and charged with two counts of violating her probation.
Parizek credited the prevention of the kidnapping crime and arrests to the legal gun owner.
“It certainly looks like the big turning point here, the pivotal piece to keeping her child safe was the fact that she was lawfully armed with a handgun, and she produced it and told them ‘let go of my kid,'” Parizek explained.
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