“Not on my watch” Good Samaritan in random stabbing at Walgreens held down suspect

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - The man who held down a stabbing suspect until police arrived is being deemed a Good Samaritan. The Columbia Police Department is investigating a stabbing that happened at the Walgreens of Devine Street and Cross Hill Road in Columbia around 11:16 on Tuesday morning.

Authorities arrested 47-year-old Jermaine Nedd and charged him with Attempted Murder and Possession of a weapon during a violent crime. According to CDP, Nedd stabbed a random person multiple times in the upper body.

“A good Samaritan, a heroic Samaritan held the suspect down until law enforcement arrived”, Deputy Chief of the Columbia Police Department Melron Kelly said.

Kennis Goodman is a Veteran of the US Airforce, from Mullins, South Carolina. Goodman told WIS he was delivering door dash orders and his first order of the day happened to be at a Walgreens. While picking up the listed items, Goodman said he heard chaos and within minutes saw a man tackled to the ground. Without a question, Goodman sprung to action and tackled the Nedd, grabbing the knife from his hands.

“I kicked him off the individual and subdued him with the knife and we got into a little tussle and I got him on the ground and managed to keep him there until the police arrived,” Goodman said.

By the time Goodman had made it to the man who had been stabbed, he said there were three stab wounds. Goodman told WIS there was blood everywhere, and a lot of it. In the sheer moments of panic, he asked employees and witnesses to help.

“The women and everyone else around were a little bit disturbed because they didn’t know what was going on, and me either I didn’t realize what I was doing but, in a fight, or flight moment I was just thinking to stop whatever was going on. Seeing someone with such a large age gap between each other and an older individual on the floor was just something that couldn’t happen,” Goodman said.

He’s being called a Good Samaritan by the police department and community members, but he said that’s not he feels.

“I am just a regular individual that just came into the store, God gave me a chance to prove myself as a good individual in this world and I think I took the opportunity to please him”, Goodman said.

The adrenaline subsided and, in his reflection, goodman says he wished he could have done more.

“People feel as though I saved lives, I feel as though I might have been late to the situation had I not acted, and I still feel like I didn’t act fast enough,” Goodman said.

Goodman told WIS he immediately called a friend to help him cope with what had happened, he sought mental counseling shortly after. He said mental health is something he’s advocated for while being in the military, and this moment only encouraged him to seek assistance.

“I really want to say speechless but my words of choice are senseless, it was a random stabbing. I had no idea this was going to take place on this day. I was really disturbed and distraught the entire day by it, but overall I’m really happy I did something about it”.

Goodman told WIS he was given a chance to be a good person that day, and he was thankful for it. When asked to reflect on putting himself in danger he said,

“I was willing to lose it, that day death wasn’t the same as I was looking at it but I was willing to lose it that day. I couldn’t stand there and watch that old man die in front of me and then I couldn’t watch the guy doing the stabbing continue to stab. If it would have gotten to the point where I got stabbed at least the older person wouldn’t have been stabbed more. I’ll be honest I was willing to lose my life that day,” Goodman said.

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