Two Marine veterans played a key role in stopping a man who allegedly stabbed multiple victims in a Michigan Walmart.
Matthew Kolakwoski had just left a checkout lane when he heard a worker scream that a man had a knife. He then heard a “mass of blood-curling screams from the back of the store,” mlive.com reported.
Kolakowski saw the man stab another shopper and then stab an elderly woman. He told his daughter and her friend to stay where they were while he and his brother-in-law went toward the man.
The man, identified as Bradford James Gille, 42, looked like he was going for the elderly woman again, Kolakowski said. He rammed Gille with his shopping cart. Gille tried to get up, but another man hit him with his shopping cart from the other side.
Kolakowski began to raise the cart to smash it on top of Gille when another Marine veteran, Derrick Perry, arrived and drew his personal pistol, holding Gille at gunpoint in the parking lot.
On video Perry can be heard along with others repeatedly telling Gille to put down the knife.
“I ultimately wanted him to put the knife down and back away until law enforcement got there,” Perry told ABC’s Good Morning America. “I did not see myself as any type of judge, jury or executioner — I just wanted everyone to be safe.”
“I just wanted to do right by my community and help where there was a problem,” Perry said in a statement shared by the Sheriff’s Office. “I am just like any other member of the community. I wasn’t looking to be heroic. I just wanted to help my neighbors. I can’t take all the credit as there were other courageous individuals who were also standing up to the attacker too. I appreciate the outpouring of thanks and love from the public.”
Kolakowski, 39, and his brother-in-law Chris O’Brien, 43, spoke at a press conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Tuesday.
“Both individuals were instrumental in the detaining of the individual until law enforcement could arrive,” Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea told Task & Purpose.
Police said that 11 people suffered injuries in the Saturday attack at the Traverse City Walmart. The victims ranged in age from 29 to 84 years old. All are expected to survive.
Gille was charged with 11 counts of attempted murder and a single terrorism charge. He’s being held on a $100,000 bond.
Kolakowski enlisted in the Marines in September 2004 and became a landing support specialist, according to his official service record, Task and Purpose reported. He deployed to Iraq from August 2006 to March 2007, and he left the Marine Corps as a corporal in September 2008. His last duty assignment was with Combat Logistics Regiment 17, 1st Marine Logistics Group, Camp Pendleton in California.
Kolakowski’s military awards include the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and National Defense Service Medal.
Perry served from October 1994 to June 1995 as a basic operational communicator, leaving the Corps as a private first class, Task and Purpose reported. His last duty assignment was listed as the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton, California.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
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