Good Guy with a Gun #20: Hampton, VA

Original incident: November 25, 2023. In this case, the GGWAG had a rough time of it — but he stopped a violent carjacking spree by an armed felon.

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Early one morning, Kenneth Maddox Jr. went on a carjacking spree.

It was 3:30 AM, and a local DJ had just finished loading his gear into his car outside Los Compadres Restaurant in Hampton, Virginia. Maddox pressed a gun to the man’s neck, demanded his phone, snatched a laptop and tablet, then yanked him from the car — still holding the barrel to the back of his neck.

The DJ granted an interview to WAVY: Though he’s not an English speaker, and most of the interview was conducted through his son, he spoke enough English to say some universal words: “My family. My babies. My wife... My family.” As Maddox fumbled with the emergency brake, the DJ bolted inside the restaurant. The police found his car about three miles away — damaged from Maddox driving it with the emergency brake on.

Ninety minutes later, Maddox tried again at Hampton Woods Apartments on Marcella Road. (Apparently he had an accomplice at that time, though it’s not clear from the reporting whether he had been there at the previous carjacking.) Lyft driver David Murphy had pulled into the parking lot; Maddox walked over and asked to use his phone. Murphy offered to dial a number instead.

“I dialed a number for him, and next thing I know I have a gun pointed to my head and he demanded me to get out of the vehicle,” Murphy told WAVY. “I put my hands up and he opened the car door and was dragging me out of the car. I quickly reached for my personal firearm and I shot. It was so traumatic, it was so crazy. I was so scared I was going to die.”

Even after shooting Maddox point-blank, things didn’t go perfectly for Murphy. Maddox was hit but not down, and during the struggle, he knocked Murphy’s gun out of his hand.

That said, Murphy’s guardian angel was clearly working overtime. Maddox’s magazine fell out during the fight, and apparently he didn’t have one in the chamber: He tried to shoot Murphy in the chest and failed.

“I was so scared I was going to die,” Murphy later said. He, too, had a family, including an infant.

Maddox and the accomplice took the car. Police later found it, significantly damaged.

That was more bad news for Murphy, since driving for Lyft was his main income stream. (There was a link to a GoFundMe in the WAVY article, but it’s no longer active.)

Here’s the final bit of good news. Murphy’s round hit home and stopped the spree. Maddox went to the hospital with a life-threatening gunshot wound, and the police were able to identify him through surveillance video. He was arrested and charged with two counts of carjacking and two counts of use of a firearm in a felony. The Virginian-Pilot tells us that “Each carjacking charge is punishable between 15 years and life behind bars.” Let’s hope he serves real time.

This Good Guy with a Gun didn’t have a great outcome for himself, but things were better for others because he acted: If not for David Murphy and his firearm, Maddox probably would have kept going.

Sources

WAVY did yeoman’s work on this story with its initial story and follow-on interviews. If not for their reporting, we would know neither how lucky nor how unlucky Murphy was that morning. The consequences of Maddox’s crime spree are vivid and terrifying.

The other sources we found included 13 News Now, Tidewater Crime, and The Virginian-Pilot.

The Hampton Police’s site also had its report in an easy-to-find location. It can be pretty surprising how often that doesn’t happen, at least for older stories.

Finally, in the 2A community, Concealed Nation had the coverage.

That thing that never happens, happens every day.

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