KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A teenager is facing charges for crimes committed in the Fort Sanders area Saturday night.
KPD said officers arrested a 13-year-old who's accused of aggravated assault, armed robbery and attempted carjacking. The agency is still on the lookout for other suspects who may have been involved.
University of Tennessee junior, Lucy, was one of the victims is the string of crimes near Laurel Avenue.
Lucy said she pulled up to the dumpster behind the Barclay House apartment complex to throw some things away Saturday night.
"My car's parked almost near against the side," Lucy motioned. "The door swings open here so there's this much of an exit."
She said she was approached by an armed man trying to steal her car. She said in the moment, she didn't really know what to do when she saw the gun.
"So I shoved his arm or his hand with the gun, shoved my forearm against his chest and it's not very successful," Lucy explained. "He shoves me off, I end up on the ground."
Lucy said the man started to get in her car, but when he heard sirens, he jumped out and ran away.
"I'm thinking of the many ways it could have gone wrong and I believe I lucked out in a lot of sort of ways," Lucy admitted.
Geoff Hampton at Bullman's Kickboxing and Krav Maga agreed Lucy got lucky, but said confronting someone with a gun isn't the best option.
"If someone is out there with a gun, and you are not really currently training martial arts and understand fully the action/reaction of trying to disarm someone with a gun, you run a very high risk of something very bad happening," Hampton explained.
Hampton said the best thing to do if you are able -- is run.
“If you’re confronted with a gun, and you have a chance to run, that’s your best option—run," Hampton said. "Because if you get even 10 feet away, the chances of someone firing a shot that’s gonna kill you is only five percent.”
Hampton said you can carry a weapon to protect yourself, but it there often isn't enough time to be effective in these types of situations.
"The likelihood of you being able to use it are probably very low, so your hands and your feet are gonna be the key to what happens, what the outcome is, you know, and then your training, how much training you've had," Hampton noted.
He encourages self-defense training and being aware of your surroundings.
"Observe, orient, decide, act," Hampton explained. "And that's the kind of mindset you've got to have when you're out there in the street-facing all kinds of situations."
Hampton urged the importance of not being distracted while in public, especially at night.
Bullman's is hosting a women's self-defense course Saturday, Aug. 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. and UT students can get a discount on that class.