A U.S. Marshal said a suspect is alive today because of the Byrna. 

The agent, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was working a fugitive warrant for a suspect who had 12 warrants out for his arrest.

He said his job, along with his partner, was to access the room where the suspect kept his computer.

“We go into that room and secure the room until the building’s cleared,” he said.

While he was in the room with his partner, the suspect approached the pair. 

“He was about six, actually eight to 12 feet away from us. I told him to stop, put his hands up and get on his knees and he kept coming right towards me,” he said. 

The agent said he believed the suspect was heading towards the computer, but he was there.

“I shot him in the chest once and he got about five, six feet away. And I shot him the second time at which point he drops to the ground holding his chest,” he said. “Thought he had been shot and said give me a medic.”

His partner had a 10 mm pistol in his hand but didn’t shoot the suspect.

“He stood there as cover,” he said. “So, we arrested the guy got his computers, and took him to a hospital to get checked out where he had two big bruises on his chest where the kinetic rounds hit him and then he went to jail …for a long time.”

The agent said if he did not have a Byrna that day, “he would have been shot because he was coming at me aggressively.”

Self Defense Has A New Hero.