Security officer saves woman from attacker www.privateofficer.com
A 23-year-old security guard foiled an attack early Tuesday when he heard a 69-year-old resident screaming as she was forced into her car at knifepoint in downtown Jacksonville.
Florence Lane was unloading groceries from her car at 12:30 a.m. outside the Cathedral Towers when she saw a man in a blue hooded sweatshirt sitting on a concrete block in front of Sam’s Food Store next door. As she opened her car’s back door, someone grabbed her from behind, ordered her to lie down and said he had a knife.
Guard Willie Parker heard her cry out and chased the man as he jumped over a fence.
“I screamed, and Willie heard me and he came running,” Lane said. “I chased the guy and got his foot, but couldn’t hold him.”
Parker lost sight of him on East Beaver Street, and a police search that included a helicopter also failed to locate him. Officers did find a folding knife, blade out, near the fence, as well as shoes that may have been his.
Parker couldn’t be reached for comment at the senior citizen apartment building at 701 N. Ocean St. But Lane said she is ever grateful.
