FL: 89-Year-Old Wins Gunfight with Career Criminal

A decorated WWII veteran, who never fired a shot while overseas, won a battle with a robber half his age on Saturday.   The hand to hand combat lasted until Arthur M. Lewis and the robber were both exhausted.   Lewis had shot the robber six times, four times in the chest, once in the arm and once in the wrist and leg.  Lewis himself was wounded with a graze to his left arm.

Lewis' girlfriend says that people think of him as frail, but he is anything but frail.

The alleged robber, Lennard Patrick Jervis, has been arrested 20 times since 1989.   From palmbeachpost.com:

Lewis was working behind the counter at The Jewelry Exchange at 900 N. Federal Highway when he was approached by a gun-wielding man around 3 p.m., according to an arrest report from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Lewis said he immediately grabbed the suspect’s revolver and pulled out a .38-caliber handgun from his own pocket.

The two men wrestled for several minutes and fired shots at each other. Despite battling someone half his age, Lewis got the best of it. A man identified by the sheriff’s office as Lennard Patrick Jervis, a Miramar resident, was shot six times by Lewis, including four times in the chest. Lewis’ left arm was grazed by a bullet, but he was otherwise unscathed.

Other members of the gun culture would do well to consider Mr. Lewis as an example of grace under fire.   His modesty is common among the WWII veterans that I have known.   I wonder how many crimes Mr. Lewis may have prevented by aiding in the incapacitation and arrest of Lennard Jervis.  

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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