After witnessing a driver run a red light on Market street and West Indianola Avenue, Youngstown Police Officer Chris Wiebel performed a traffic stop.

After asking the driver, Dewayne Reid, to get out of his vehicle for not having a driver's license, Wiebel didn't expect Reid to start running.

That led to a scuffle between Wiebel and Reid that could have turned fatal.


"I chased him briefly, I was able, as soon as we got to the intersection was able to kind of grab onto him," said Weibel. "We fell into the street. We kind of tussled a little bit, as I looked up I noticed that he had a firearm in his hand I was kind of, it was on the ground but he had a grasp on it," he said.


Weibel was able to retrieve the weapon from Reid's hand and slide it out of reach.

While he was working to gain control of the situation, a passerby who witnessed the encounter, ran up, put the gun in the police cruiser, rolled up the windows and locked the doors.


"It's a dangerous job, I mean, I don't wanna see anyone get hurt. If he would have got loose from that officer and got that gun back, that officer wouldv'e been shot. You don't pull a gun on an officer unless you're gonna use it so, it was very scary," the passerby said.


Weibel tells 21 news that when he saw the gun during the scuffle, he was, for a split second, afraid for his life.

He says that although unexpected, he's very grateful a passerby saw what was going on and immeditaely sprung into action.


"For her to do that, especially when there's a firearm involved, I mean it was, I'm very thankful," Weibel said.


The passerby says Weibel is a hero. Weibel says he plans to show her his appreciation in some way.


Reid was arrested on several charges, including improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle, obstructing official business, resisting arrest and arrest of probationer.