Friend in need.

At around 9 p.m. on November 30, 2003, George Lowe, age 63, heard loud noises outside his home in St. Petersburg, Florida. When he went to investigate, he found four boisterous young men shouting and pounding on cars. One of them, James Moore, had just turned 20, and the group was celebrating his birthday. They had all been drinking.

When Lowe asked them to quiet down and leave the cars alone, an argument ensued, and one of the men, Eric Palm, took a swing at Lowe, but missed. Lowe grabbed Palm's jersey, and Palm shoved Lowe in the face to push him away. One of the revelers then kicked Lowe in a hip, knocking him down. Lowe later told the December 4 St. Petersburg Times that the kick to his hip felt like the bone had exploded. Moore and another member of the group, James Ganoe III, participated in the fray as Lowe was repeatedly kicked in the legs and back. The fourth young man, who was not identified in news accounts, opted to stay out of the altercation.

One of Lowe's neighbors, longtime friend Melvin Spaulding, 71, witnessed the fracas from his trailer. Fearing that Lowe was in serious danger, Spaulding grabbed a .22-caliber hand gun and rushed to the scene. He repeatedly ordered the three assailants to stop beating Lowe, but they ignored him. When the assault continued, Spaulding fired a single shot that struck Moore in the fight arm. As the other men fled, someone who heard the gunshot called 911.

Lowe suffered some bruises, a sore back and a torn leg muscle. Moore was taken to a local medical center for treatment of his gunshot wound. Immediately after his release, he was arrested on suspicion of a similar assault earlier that same evening. Another man had asked four noisy youths (presumably Moore and his friends) to be quiet, and Moore allegedly struck the complainant in the face with a plastic bottle. Police were looking for Moore when the imbroglio with Lowe occurred.

Sheriff's deputies eventually charged Moore, Palm and Ganoe with misdemeanor battery for the assault on Lowe, but they also arrested Spaulding and charged him with attempted murder for shooting Moore. Spaulding spent two days in the Pinellas County Jail prior to being released on his own recognizance pending resolution of the case. He was picked up at the jail and driven home by Lowe, who told the December 2 Times, "He's my friend, but he's also my hero."

Spaulding told Tampa Bay cable television channel Bay News 9 on December 7 that "I had 10 seconds to decide what to do. I couldn't have called 911. They would have stomped him [Lowe] to death."

On December 17, prosecutors announced that no charges would be filed against Spaulding. The chief assistant state attorney said that the evidence showed that Spaulding had been trying to prevent Lowe from being killed or seriously injured, and that Florida law allows citizens to intervene in such cases to protect others.

Both Lowe and Spaulding were relieved by the decision not to prosecute the latter. "I think that's excellent," Lowe told the December 17 Times. "I think that's the greatest thing they could have done." Spaulding reflected that even though he did not enjoy his two day incarceration, sheriff's deputies at the jail had been polite and "100 percent, very, very nice."

Asked what he would do should he hear another noise outside his trailer and face the same situation, Spaulding told the Times, "I just couldn't let them kill somebody. I couldn't do it.... [W]hat they did was wrong."