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How a legally blind man jumped in to help two Fort Worth officers in a scuffle

Jim Walker, 57, said he didn't think twice when he saw the officers needing help

FORT WORTH, Texas — Jim Walker has been legally blind for years. His guide dog, a black lab named Cassie, is always by his side.

But he says there was nothing that could've stopped him from jumping in to help two Fort Worth police officers that were in need last weekend.

"I remember intensity," Walker said. "They were scuffling and we were coming out of the bank."

Body camera video showed the officers detaining and searching two teenagers, one of them a minor, after a shots fired call. The young men were the suspects. That's when the officers found a gun.

"Glock 22," officer Matthew Brazeal said. "It's a 40-caliber pistol."

Walker, who'd just left the bank where this was all happening, was standing by.

"I remember hearing him telling us, 'I'm just trying to help you. I'm just trying to help you,'" Brazeal said.

It was then the suspects started to scuffle with the officers. The gun still wasn't secure, and the officers said they were nervous about it. Walker realized what was happening.

"I didn't know he was there until he was right there, until he was climbing on top," officer David Woolbright said of Walker.

The 57-year-old held the suspect down, allowing one of the officers to go secure the gun.

"I wasn't going to let an officer get hurt," Walker said. "I wasn't going to let anybody get hurt if I could avoid it."

Officers Woolbright and Brazeal didn't know Walker was legally blind at the time. They also didn't know that Walker, a one-time Fort Worth Police recruit, has close ties to law enforcement himself.

"I've always been pro-law enforcement ever since my sister was brutally killed back in 1974," Walker said.

In 2018, we profiled Walker's search for his sister Carla's killer. The teenager was murdered in west Fort Worth after a dance 45 years ago. He carries her with him in all he does.

RELATED: 44 years later, who kidnapped and killed Carla Walker?


"Every day, yep. Every day," he said. "I just wish someone had been there to help my sister."

And on this day, he was there to help those officers.

"You have this man here who's willing to put himself in harms way to help us out," the officers said. "He deserves probably all the recognition here. We were just doing our job."

Police said the adult suspect, 18-year-old Jonathan Martinez-Aranda, was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and deadly conduct with a weapon.

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