Texas Man Arrested After Bringing Knife To Gun Fight

A Wichita Falls, Texas man is facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon after threatening a man with a knife outside of a grocery store earlier this week. As it turns out, the intended victim in the assault was armed with a gun, and he ended up holding the man until police could take the man in custody.

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According to the Times Record News, when police arrived at the Carniceria Los Cuates on Tuesday morning, they immediately recognized the suspect as someone they’ve dealt with in the past, and to be fair, Jeffrey Sweatt has a face that’s hard to forget.

According to the alleged victim, when he showed up to work at the store on Tuesday morning Sweatt was standing in an alley near the store. The victim told Sweatt that he needed to leave, but rather than comply, Sweatt instead allegedly attacked.

The victim said Sweatt tried to punch him so he punched Sweat a couple of times in self defense. He said Sweatt pulled a knife from his pocket so he drew his gun from his holster and held Sweatt at gunpoint until police arrived.

Officers reviewed security footage and saw that it was consistent with the victim’s story, so he won’t be facing any charges for acting in self-defense.

According to local media, the 41-year old Sweatt has had plenty of encounters with Wichita Falls police in the past. He’s been arrested on 23 separate occasions on charges that include burglary, unlawful possession of a weapon, and injury to an elderly person. Sweatt actually picked up a couple of other charges after he was arrested; two counts of possessing a prohibited substance in jail.

Given Sweatt’s lengthy criminal history and the fact that he’s still out on the streets, something tells me that the criminal justice system has cut him a break or two (or two dozen) in the past. Here’s hoping that the 24th time will be the charm, and Sweatt faces some actual consequences for his alleged crime.

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Kudos as well to the victim in this case, who drew his firearm only when he felt like his life was in danger. Like the vast majority of defensive gun uses, the trigger was never pulled and the presence of the gun in the hand of the intended victim was enough to prevent the attack from escalating any further.

This is one of those stories that will never make the national news and will quickly disappear from even local broadcasts, but its worth highlighting, and not just because of Sweatt’s nightmare-inducing mugshot. There’s a bad guy behind bars and a good guy back at work, all because that good guy was armed for his own protection. That’s a message that resonates with millions of Americans, but it’s simply not a narrative that the nation media wants to advance.

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