A man who found God after he was convicted of a crime that was later rescinded is now being hailed as a hero for saving the life of a state trooper.
Thomas Yoxall, 43, reacted instinctively when he saw the wounded and fallen trooper being savagely beaten by a man on top of him along a highway in Arizona last Jan. 12, The Arizona Republic reported.
Yoxall ordered the assailant to stop, but the latter didn't and even kept pounding the head of the trooper on the pavement.
Yoxall, who had a licensed firearm, drew his weapon and fired twice, fatally hitting the attacker and saving the life of Trooper Ed Andersson.
"I can't arbitrarily stand by and watch a tragedy like that unfold without doing what I can to intervene and stop it," Yoxall said later during a news conference.
He admitted that he still struggles with the thought of having killed a man and had sought counsel from his pastor. But if faced with the same situation, he said he would do the same thing.
Yoxall also acknowledged that he has a "past," but said "those moments of poor judgement have not dictated my future."
Court records show that he was slapped with a felony charge of theft in 2000, which was later reduced to a misdemeanor. Yoxall reportedly admitted to stealing electronics items.
However, in October 2003, a Superior Court judge vacated Yoxall's guilty judgment and restored his right to possess a gun.
Andersson expressed utmost gratitude to Yoxall, saying he's not sure he would still be alive if not for his heroic and kind act, CNN reported.
The lives of the two men intersected that fateful night when Andersson responded to a call about a man firing a weapon at cars on a local highway. When Andersson arrived at the scene, the shooter, later identified as 37-year-old Leonard Penuelas-Escobar, immediately fired at him, hitting the lawman in the right shoulder, leaving him partially paralysed and unable to draw his firearm.
When the shooter ran out of bullets, he rushed at the fallen trooper and began beating him.
Yoxall saw the incident while driving by, intervened, and saved the life of a lawman.
Yoxall believes his presence at the scene was divine in nature.
"God chose to put me in that place at that particular moment," Yoxall told CNN. "I just can't see an evil like that perpetuated without intervening."
