(WFLA, NBC NEWSCHANNEL) The Pasco County Sheriff's Office is thanking a veteran who helped a deputy take down a combative man.
Officials said Ray Johnson stepped in to help when Jordan Caraballo started punching Deputy Jesse Larkin.
"I was able to get him down, control his head so he wouldn't throw me and that's when he started punching me in the abdomen," Larkin said.
"I didn't jump in because the officer needed help. I jumped in because clearly, this person was resisting," Johnson said.
"He didn't owe me anything and he stepped in anyway. I'm very grateful for that," the deputy said.
Larkin was responding to a domestic disturbance at a home in Lutz on Monday.
"It was probably 20 seconds, but it felt like 10 minutes," Larkin said.
Investigators said Caraballo had already thrown a glass object at a family member before Larkin arrived.
Calls to 911 reveal that Caraballo was arguing with his mother and sister, which led to several calls for help.
"He's trying to break the house. He's throwing glass, there's children in here," one woman in the house said to a 911 operator. "I need them here now. There are two little kids in the house. He's slamming everything, threatening to hit me."
No one was seriously injured.
Caraballo faces four felonies and a misdemeanor.
Read more: http://bit.ly/2sdvE0h
