An Honor for Valor Under Fire

Midshipman Aided Secret Service Agent Amid Mall Gunfight

By Raymond McCaffrey


Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 19, 2007; Page B03



Naval Academy Midshipman Roarke Baldwin had gone to an Annapolis mall to catch the latest James Bond flick when he found himself in what could have been a scene from an action movie with rapid gunfire, fleeing bystanders and screaming parents herding their children to safety.


Instantly, Baldwin made a decision: He ran toward the gunfire, past the fleeing bystanders and, most significantly, to the aid of a man shopping with his family.
Naval Academy Midshipman Roarke Baldwin of Florence, Mont., receives the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal from Capt. Margaret Klein, commandant of midshipmen, for aiding a Secret Service agent in a gunfight. (By Kathleen Lange -- Associated Press)

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As it turned out, the man -- more Jack Bauer than Bond -- was a federal agent, who, like the hero of the TV show "24," took matters into his own hands, engaging in a gun battle and interceding in a fight between two groups of young men in the mall's food court. When the Secret Service agent went down after being shot in the leg, Baldwin rushed to help.


"I'm not sure I would have done the same thing if it had happened again," said Baldwin, a 19-year-old first-year midshipman from Florence, Mont.


For his actions Nov. 18, which included administering first aid to the agent at Westfield Shoppingtown Annapolis, Baldwin was awarded yesterday with the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, which is given to "junior officers and enlisted personnel who distinguish themselves by outstanding professional achievement or leadership," according to the academy.


Baldwin attributed his actions to "years of Scouting" -- and to his parents. "They're both registered nurses," he said.


Baldwin also said he was following the effective leadership principles he has been taught at the Naval Academy -- namely to always put others before yourself. "People needed help," he said.


The agent, his wife and their two daughters attended yesterday's award ceremony at the academy. The agent, who declined to give his name because he works in special operations, praised Baldwin for acting when others did not.


"The vast majority of the people didn't do anything. . . . That speaks great amounts of what his parents instilled in him," he said.


Baldwin said he was browsing in a bookstore and waiting for some friends to join him for the movie when the fight broke out about 7:15 p.m.


"The gunshots came first," he said. "I didn't count how many. Later I was told 13."


Baldwin said that the first thing that told him that he was in "real time" and not a movie was "the uncertainty" of not knowing what was going on.



"It was the people screaming that really made it clear," Baldwin said. "That was what really brought it to life for me."


It was that uncertainty that made Baldwin's actions all the more heroic. As the agent said, "Nobody knew how many other guns there were."


Baldwin arrived at the food court to find two men on the ground. He began putting pressure on the agent's leg wound and treating him for shock."There was a lot of blood, and that concerned me at first," Baldwin said. "I thought he was injured elsewhere."


As it turned out, the agent had made some quick decisions of his own. He had stumbled upon what police and school officials would later describe as a fight that began in the community and evolved into skirmishes at school.


The agent, a member of the Marine Corps Reserves, knew only that one of the boys appeared to be in grave danger. "He was probably going to be seriously injured or killed," the agent said yesterday.


Meanwhile, the agent's teenage daughter also took quick action, steering her 4-year-old sister away from the action. "I took my sister's hand. I looked back, and the guy had a gun out," she said.


The shooter, 18-year-old Annapolis resident Javaughn N. Adams, fired in the direction of the agent, who said he drew his .357 magnum handgun and shouted that he was a law-enforcement officer. The agent then fired several shots at the suspect, hitting him twice and taking a bullet himself. The shooter was charged later with multiple felony offenses. A third person, Annapolis High School student Tahzay L. Brown, was struck in the crossfire.


Baldwin was the first to reach the agent. After a state police officer and paramedics rushed to his aid, Baldwin spent another two hours comforting the family, particularly the 4-year-old girl, who was left alone while the police were interviewing others.


"I ended up getting her to trust me," he said.