To the editor:

In a recent AP article, I did not see the mention of two former U.S. Marines who happened to be at the Walmart in Michigan during the knife attack and took the perpetrator down. One such Marine, Matt Kolakowski and his brother-in-law, Chris O’Brien, were in Traverse City for a family vacation and shopping at the Walmart for supplies for the weekend.

As they were checking out, they heard a frantic warning.

The men were there with Kolakowski’s 13-year-old daughter and her friend.

Kolakowski didn’t have any kind of weapon on him, but he grabbed an empty grocery cart. He said he saw the attacker stab another man in the shoulder and an elderly woman in the back while fleeing the store.

In the parking lot, Kolakowski gave chase and said he rammed the attacker in the ankle with the cart. He lifted the cart over his head and attempted to slam it down onto the man, who scrambled away before he was hit.

Another bystander, who Kolakowski later learned is also a Marine, drew a gun on the attacker. He had just come from a shooting range.

Finally, the attacker dropped the knife, and Kolakowski — who told CNN he served in Iraq nearly 20 years ago — held him down until help arrived.

“I just turned into somebody that I haven’t been in a long time and stayed on top of him until the deputy ran up and jumped on top of him with a rifle in his face, and I helped the deputy arrest him,” he said.

When Kolakowski told the officer he was a former Marine, the officer handed him some first aid supplies and asked him to help. He assisted police in treating the wounded, applying tourniquets to stabbing victims who were still in shock.

“They walk among us.” You never know when a Marine or former military is around when something like this happens. I say a profound thank you because no more people were assaulted or killed. What wonderful selfless people.

Jennifer Zahn

Saranac Lake