Two Chicago men had no idea who they were messing with when they stabbed and robbed a veteran.
Noe Mondragon was charged with aggravated battery, use of a deadly weapon and armed robbery after attacking the victim. Luis Salgado-Camargo was also charged with felony armed robbery, WFLD reported.
The victim, Neil McCarthy, was walking along the shore of Lake Michigan with his girlfriend when they were robbed and stabbed.
“It’s exciting isn’t it, a little adventure,” McCarthy told WFLD. “I know, that’s weird.”
McCarthy, a London native currently attending college in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was on a weekend getaway with his girlfriend when he saw the three men walking towards him. The suspects approached him and demanded that he hand over his phone and wallet.
While he was distracted, McCarthy said one of the men began attacking his girlfriend.
“Turning and seeing that guy just on her and I don’t know where those hands have been get them off my girlfriend, that’s what made me take a risk essentially,” he said. He was able to get one suspect off his girlfriend but the other stabbed him in the shoulder.
“When you already give what they are asking and they are not backing off you kind of have to get ready for anything to happen,” Carisa Lerner, McCarthy’s girlfriend, said.
McCarthy, a Royal Air Force veteran, was able to locate some of his belongings, and also caught one of his attackers.
“I just sprinted after and just got him and dragged him over to the road here,” he said.
Added Lerner: “He literally jumped on him, dragged him up to the pathway, put his arms around his back, then the cops drive up really fast cuff him and put him in.”
Despite the incident, McCarthy said he still enjoyed Chicago.
“It hasn’t ruined the city for me, I like Chicago,” he said. “I just like the people here, the pizza is amazing, it’s just a nice place.”
Many readers applauded the man’s bravery and called for the two suspects to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
“Those two men will never ever do anything good for this country! Once they get out they will continue to harm people and rob until they get caught again or shot,” one reader commented on America 1st’s Facebook page.
“It’s too bad that Chicago does its best to keep the citizens unarmed and unable to defend themselves,” another wrote.
“I wish he taken those thugs out for good. They not needed in our world,” another added.