A selfless bystander prevented an out-of-control brawl at a packed Alaska State Fair from turning deadly when he swooped in to quickly disarm a brute who pulled out a gun.
Without a second thought, Jaden Perry, 24, inserted himself into the fight Monday the moment he saw one of the eight hooligans brandish a gun.
In all the chaos, Perry wasn’t thinking about his own safety, but the swaths of young families still passing through the fairgrounds.
“The first thought that went through my head is there are kids everywhere,” Perry told KTUU.
“I didn’t think much during it, but afterwards I’m glad I did. I would do it again every time. Last thing anybody needs to do is bury their child, take their kid to the hospital, or even a parent — they were everywhere.”
The entire tail-end of the fight was captured in a viral video, which shows Perry wrestling the gun away from the ruffian.
Many, including the fair’s organizers, hailed Perry as a hero.
“The Alaska State Fair commends the civilian for his actions to assist CMS in disarming the individual. His actions were heroic,” Melissa Keefe, Alaska State Fair director of marketing and communications, said in a statement to the outlet.
“In addition, the actions of several unarmed CMS staff who took action to de-escalate the physical altercations taking place simultaneously during the incident should also be commended.”
In the wild video, Perry and several fair staffers ran over to the brawl to rip the foul-mouthed fighters apart. While several of those involved were caught slipping and sliding on the rain-soaked pavement, one young man pulled out a handgun and tried to cock it, according to the video.
Perry grabbed the man by his arms to prevent him from firing, while others pushed the irate troublemakers away.
“Let it go!” one man could be heard shouting.
“Stop fighting!” another one ordered.
Some of the vindictive brawlers, still intent on having their battle, tried to body slam their pacifiers, but to no avail.
“People need to be aware [that] things go wrong at any minute, no matter where you are. It’s not okay for that to happen — at all. That should not have happened in the first place, but people do need to be aware that this is the thing that happens,” Perry told the outlet.
“We’re in an age where this is common. And it saddens me, it does, no matter what kind of gun control or gun laws are put out there, this will happen.”
It’s unclear if any of the men involved in the fight were arrested or what sparked the dispute in the first place.
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