Two cousins who came to the aid of a sheriff's deputy are nominated for the county's Moral Courage Award.
By RODNEY THRASH
Published January 9, 2004
[Times photo: Fraser Hale]
Cousins Stephen Cox, left, and Bobby Dixon, both 17, have been nominated for the Hillsborough County Moral Courage Award. Last month, the duo won the Sheriff's Civilian Award.
LUTZ - It could have been a bloody, perhaps deadly, start to August.
As two teens drove along Livingston Avenue that Friday, they saw flashing blue and red emergency lights. A white and green Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office patrol car stood still. A woman clad in a sheriff's uniform screamed for somebody, anybody to help her fend off her attacker.
Most people merely watched the confrontation unfold. Their feet never shifted from the accelerator to the brake. Their cars whisked by as if nothing was happening.
Cousins Stephen Cox and Bobby Dixon, two high school kids without the slightest clue about rescue techniques or what kind of person they would encounter, did what others couldn't, wouldn't or were too afraid to do.
"Ma'am, do you need help?" yelled Cox, 17.
"Yes! Yes!" the woman screamed. "Help! Help!"
A suicidal man
The 911 call came in about 7:30 a.m.
A suicidal man had fled his home on Lutz's Vandervort Drive, relatives told a dispatcher. He couldn't find his medicine, they said. He was enraged. And, as he had three times before, he threatened to commit suicide.
Deputy Deborah Walker spotted a man matching the description about 50 yards from the home. He was lanky, 5-feet-11 and 150 pounds. He wore blue jeans and a plaid shirt.
Walker approached the 39-year-old man and started a conversation. She wanted him to know that life was worth living. He ignored her and tried walking, unsuccessfully, into oncoming traffic.
"See, I missed my chance," George Fields yelled.
To be sure, Walker asked Fields if he was armed. She patted him down.
"Yeah," Fields responded as a 4-inch steak knife emerged from his right rear pocket. Walker tried grabbing Fields' right arm. Several times, she instructed him to drop his weapon.
"Let go of the knife," Walker warned. "Let go of the knife."
Fields refused. A struggle began, Walker holding the stainless steel blade and Fields the black handle.
This was no game
Dixon saw the blood smeared on Walker's white sheriff's shirt. He thought she'd been stabbed.
Thoughts turned to his own father, Terry, a corporal with the Sheriff's Office special operations unit.
At least 20 spectators sat in their cars, watching, waiting and never lifting a finger to help, Dixon said. What if that were Dad, left to fend for himself, he thought.
The car was not yet in park when Dixon, shirtless, jumped out and grabbed hold of Fields' arm.
"I didn't care about putting my life on the line then and there," he said. "I was just trying to save that cop's life."
So was Cox, a Wharton High linebacker used to taking down opponents.
But this was no game.
Cox just started talking, hoping the words that flowed from his mouth carried as much force as the tackles he made Friday nights on the football field.
"Don't do anything stupid," he recalled telling Fields. "You'll go to jail. You're done for life."
The sound of emergency sirens from not-so-distant sheriff's cars grew louder. Fields dropped the knife.
People take notice
Cox shrugs off the magnitude of his actions.
"That's how I am," he said. "If someone needs help, I'll help them out."
Dixon, who dreams of joining the Sheriff's Office after graduation from Jefferson High School, is just as modest.
"I don't consider myself a hero," he said. "It's just . . . what my family taught me when I was growing up."
Still, people cannot help but notice the teens' bravery.
Last month, the duo was nominated for the Hillsborough County Moral Courage Award, an annual honor that dates back 13 years. The County Commission will announce the winner in the spring.
"Had it not been for their willingness to help, the situation could have escalated to the point that someone could have been seriously injured or worse," Lt. Harold Winsett wrote in his nomination letter.
Also last month, Cox and Dixon received a Sheriffs' Civilian Award. It was the first time either had seen Walker since that nearly tragic summer morning.
She hugged the boys and through her tears said "thank you."
