Good Samaritan recalls saving officer from knife attack at NC Cookout

SALISBURY, N.C. — Local police officers are giving their heartfelt gratitude to a man who helped police take down a suspect accused of attacking an officer with a knife last month.

There’s courage behind every badge on the Salisbury Police Department, but Channel 9’s Hannah Goetz was there as Harry Glass was recognized this week for his bravery under an old flannel and worn hat.

“It just looked like he needed help,” Glass said. “He was just one guy, and he just needed help.”

Police say on Oct. 26, Jamie Lynee Hunt wrecked a work van near a Cookout drive-thru and tried to force himself into the restaurant. Glass and his girlfriend were nearby when officer Azende King arrived.

“The guy was trying to get into the Cookout door, and people were holding it shut from the inside. And he was like, Hey, wait a minute. And then, you know, the guy became combative, pretty, pretty quickly,” Glass recalled.

King said it was less than a minute before things turned physical.

“Thirty-five seconds, 35 seconds from the time I got in my car to the time that I was now wrestling with this guy. And really, you could call this life and death fight,” King said.

King said Hunt pulled out a knife.

“I heard officer King yelling 51-- I don’t know who that is or what it is --but I could have just guessed that he’s calling for his partner, his backup, his buddy and and, you know, he was, he was by himself,” Glass said. “There was, you know, it was a moment before his backup got there, and I just knew he needed help.

You can hear in the video that he decides to help, despite the pleas for him not to intervene.

“He was face down on his stomach facing me, and come to find out, he had his box cutter in his right hand,” Glass said. “So I grabbed that right hand, he cut me quickly.”

Officer Nicholas Webb arrived seconds later.

“Soon as I grab his hand, he makes a movement, comes up really fast, kind of cuts my neck,” Webb said.

The three men finally got control of Hunt and he was placed under arrest. King somehow walked away unscathed, but Webb’s neck was cut and Glass severed tendons all throughout his hands.

Glass is now on a slow road to full recovery after 32 stitches.

“It was just a really scary time; this story could be a really awful sad story really easily,” he said.

The reality of a close call set in for all three men this week. Glass says he was just in the right place at the right time, but the officers say otherwise.

“It was a life-saving moment, for sure.”

Today, both officers King and Webb are back on the job.

(VIDEO: Good Samaritan helps save officer from knife attack at Cookout)