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Parkway South students hailed as heroes after intervening in street car park rampage | Headline News St. Louis


WEST ST. LOUIS COUNTY (KMOV.com) – Two Parkway South High School students are being hailed as heroes by their local police chief after they intervened in a violent incident on the street in late October.

A 73-year-old man is facing charges, accused of getting ahead of another man in an encroachment in the Parkway South High School parking lot.

Jose Vazquez and Jaliyah Conner were leaving school around 3:20 p.m. when they noticed an commotion in the school parking lot.

Vazquez said: “I was walking to my car and when I turned around, I saw a man in the car and another man outside the car filming with his phone. “I kept shouting ‘Stop! You stop! Get away from each other!” and it resulted in them separating in seconds. “

But seconds later, Vazquez said the man behind the wheel threatened to run past the man outside his car if he stepped forward. According to Vazquez, the victim ran over.

“The man in the car overtook him once, then drove around the parking lot a second time, completely over his ribs, and was about to do so a third time before my wife and I I jumped into action and stopped the car.”

Moments ago, Conner said she was getting in her car with her mother and was about to leave the parking lot when she noticed Vazquez and two men screaming.

“I’ve heard controversies and things like that,” she said. “I don’t want to participate because it’s none of my business. I don’t know what’s going on.”

When her mother called 911, Conner said she waited to see what might happen.

“That’s when I heard someone say, ‘He just ran over,'” she said. “So I stepped out of the car and that’s when I watched him speed up a bit and overtake him. I heard a crackle and that’s when I wanted, ‘I have to get in.’

Conner said she rushed to the victim’s aid, while keeping an eye on the suspect from the corner of her eye. According to police, the 72-year-old victim suffered a broken pelvis, broken ribs and other serious injuries.

“He kept it a secret, but he was so scared, he didn’t want to open his eyes, he just wanted to close them,” Conner said. “I told him he couldn’t do it and he was holding my hand and Jose the whole time.”

Vazquez said when the suspect came to attack the victim a third time, he yelled and begged him to stop.

Police said the suspect, identified as 73-year-old Michael Gallagher, then got out of the car and snatched the victim’s wife’s cell phone from her hand, injuring her wrist. He was arrested less than a mile from the school shortly after the incident. He was charged with first-degree assault, second-degree robbery and armed criminal act.

Police say the incident began nearby on Manchester Road when the victim cut off a Gallagher in traffic. The victim then drove nearly a mile to the school parking lot in an attempt to get Gallagher to stop after him. Manchester Police Chief Scott Will said while intervening in a road rage situation can be dangerous, the two students were heroic in their efforts.

“If it weren’t for them, I really believe this man could have been hurt much worse if he hadn’t been killed,” he said.

Will recommends that if you’re being followed, the best thing to do is drive to the nearest police station. If you’re not sure where to go, call 911 and let them know the situation and staff will find you.

Both students said they were still processing what they witnessed in the school parking lot.

“I don’t think he’s going to run past him a second time,” Vazquez said. “Unbelievably, I even saw him go around the parking lot to get momentum and hit him a second time.”

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