Good Samaritan shot trying to help woman in Minneapolis recalls act of heroism
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A man who ran to help a woman being accosted by two men with guns and ended up getting shot himself in Minneapolis this week. On Thursday, he recalled the act that many are calling heroic.
"But considering how bad it could have been, I count this to be a big blessing," said Jacob Babcock.
Lying in a hospital bed in the intensive care unit, Jacob Babcock rattled off his injuries: A fractured shoulder blade, two broken ribs, and a lung currently re-inflating.
Babcock, a shop manager at the Sherwin Williams paint store on Lake Street in south Minneapolis, was shot Tuesday afternoon rushing to the aid of a woman being held at gunpoint by two armed suspects.
"I heard that screaming, I knew it wasn’t playful," said Babcock. "It wasn’t people messing around. It’s something serious."
Jacob’s colleague dashed to the woman, with Jacob Chasing after the suspects as they took off in a vehicle through the alley.
After banging on the SUV, Jacob remembers the suspect in the driver’s seat, lowering a window and firing.
Jacob was struck once in the back. The bullet remains lodged up around his right shoulder.
"There was no game plan at all," he recalled. "Just headed toward the vehicle, for all I knew there could’ve been an abducted child in there."
Jacob is absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring of support he has received the last couple days including words of gratitude from his beloved hometown community that has struggled with crime and lawlessness in the wake of George Floyd's death.
Two online GoFundMe pages are now approaching a combined $70,000 with some calling his actions heroic. He’s just grateful he’ll be able to go home to his wife and two young daughters soon.
"It’s the only thing I thought about while laying on my back on Lake Street outside the store," he said. "I was looking into the sky. It was clear blue that day, if I don’t make it... I have to pull through."
"Not only do I love them with all my heart, but they need me," he added. "And I need them. I had to stay together for them. My biggest fear was not seeing them again, and it was gut-wrenchingly terrifying to come to terms with that possibility."