Sgt. Dan Noble, a Purple Heart veteran, was attacked outside a church in Brookhaven during a robbery attempt Monday night. But he gave his assailant a real fight.
Noble was finishing a 2nd day of physical therapy at Crozer-Chester Medical Center when he spoke with Action News. He's recovering from the leg wound he received Monday when he resisted an armed robbery attempt on busy Upland Road in Brookhaven.
Noble, twice the recipient of the Purple Heart for injuries sustained in U.S. war zones, was suddenly in a violent confrontation less than mile from his home and across from the Our Lady Of Charity Church. He told the masked gunman he would not submit to his threats.
Sgt. Noble spent 22 years in the infantry including long tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. He suffered extensive injuries in both those wars and, when confronted on a street in Delaware County, his instincts kicked in.
The robber put the gun to his head. They wrestled to the snowy ground. Then Noble tried to break the gunman's wrist. A shot was fired, hitting the Noble. His injuries, he says, prevented him from getting his military knife out in time or breaking the robber's grip on the trigger.
The gunman fled by the time Noble was able to get his knife out. However Noble, an ex-marine and member of the Army's 82nd Airborne, says most crime victims should not resist as he did.
