A south suburban woman is being honored after a remarkable act of courage was caught on video.
Stacie Davis, of Harvey, lost her brother and boyfriend to gun violence. So when she spotted a young boy walking down 154th street with what looked like a very real gun, she did what she felt was right.
"I saw a kid tucking what seemed to be a gun in the front of his waist band. I could not believe what I was seeing," she said. "I had to do something."
Davis stopped her car, told her cousin to start recording on her phone in case anything happened, and confronted the 11-year-old boy.
"This is how kids get shot. Do you understand?" she can be heard saying in the video.
"My instincts kicked in and it didnt matter whose child it was. I was going to get that gun. Period," Davis told NBC 5.
She took the gun from the boy, and though it looked real, with a removable clip and Smith and Wesson written on the side, it turned out to be a toy.
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"Whoever sells that gun should be in some kind of trouble," she said.
Though the gun wasn't real, many still call her bravery heroic, and say her actions could have saved his life. Local attorney Travis Richardson compared the incident to what happened in the case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. Rice was fatally shot by Cleveland police in 2014 when officers thought he had a gun, which turned out to be a toy.
"What this young lady did may have actually saved this boy's life," Richardson said.
Davis is being recognized for doing the right thing, and she says she'd gladly do it again.
"Risking my life, if that gun was real, if anything happened, that would have been the risk I took to save somebody else's life," Davis said.
On Sunday, she will be presented with the Mother of the Year award at Sweet Holy Spirit church, and she will also receive a special honor at the next Harvey city council meeting.
