A Tennessee man who used a fork to attack a couple in their Nashville hotel room ended up with a bullet wound, courtesy of a Glock 19 lawfully carried by the husband.
The incident began at around 2 p.m. on Sunday when 48-year-old James Ray Grisham got into an elevator with the couple at the Suburban Extended Stay Hotel in Nashville’s Hermitage neighborhood. Grisham wasn’t a guest at the hotel, and it’s still unclear what he was doing there.
Speaking to Breitbart News, the husband—identified only as Alex—said he and his wife were returning from church that Sunday, and they both noticed immediately that Grisham was behaving suspiciously when he entered the elevator. When the elevator stopped at their floor, Alex told Grisham he could get off first, but he refused. Alex again invited the man to leave the elevator first, and the man finally exited one way, while Alex and his wife, Dana, went the other way.
Around 10 to 15 minutes later, Alex and Dana decided to go for some coffee. Alex opened the door to their room to see Grisham standing right in front of him. That’s when Grisham lunged and tried to stab Alex.
“I opened the door and he invaded us,” Alex told Breitbart News.
Alex said Grisham kept swiping at him and going for his neck with the fork, which Alex actually thought was a knife at the time.
What Grisham didn’t realize is that there was a Glock 19 in the room. Alex—who has a valid Tennessee concealed carry permit—had the pistol on him all morning and had put it on a nearby table when he and Dana got back. Alex kept fighting with Grisham while trying to make his way to the gun.
While all this was going on, Dana kept screaming “Get out! Get out!” at Grisham.
Alex eventually managed to get to the Glock 19 and open fire, shooting Grisham once in the left bicep.
Grisham tried to flee the scene, but Alex held him there at gunpoint until police arrived.
Alex suffered minor injuries from the incident, while Dana was uninjured. Grisham was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment. He’s been charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He’s now being held on a $10,000 bond.
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Alex isn’t likely to be charged because he acted in self defense.
“If it wasn’t for that [Glock 19], you wouldn’t be speaking to me,” Alex told Breitbart News. “Because that guy was like a demon, he was coming at me. And if it had not been me—if he had cornered someone without a gun—he probably would have hurt them badly.”
