Good Samaritan Sends Would-Be Carjacker To Hospital With Chest Wound

An incident in which a good Samaritan with a nine-millimeter pistol sent a would-be carjacker to the hospital with a chest wound while protecting a woman and child resurfaced on social media Sunday.

Authorities in Tazewell County, Virginia, said 30-year-old Cody Dailey of Bluefield, West Virginia, accosted a woman and her child at a Falls Mills, Virginia, convenience store and told the child of his intentions to commit a heinous act, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported in 2024. After receiving commands from the Good Samaritan, Dailey, who had two outstanding felony warrants and was armed with a knife, attacked the intervenor and knocked him to the ground.

The good Samaritan shot Dailey in the chest, ending the incident. Sheriff’s deputies, including at least one who was off duty, treated Dailey’s wound until help arrived.

“Thank goodness for the good Samaritans that came to the victims aid during her time of need,” Tazewell County Sheriff Brian Hieatt told the local outlet. “We are grateful for their desire to intercede on her behalf, had they not acted this could have been a very different outcome.”

Dailey was airlifted to a hospital, where he was in stable condition and charged with abduction, carjacking, assault and battery and other offenses, Hieatt told the local outlet.

Dailey allegedly had threatened another person with a knife shortly before he attempted to carjack the woman. Deputies responding to the earlier incident heard the gunshot and raced roughly a quarter mile to the scene of the self-defense shooting.