Michael Clark

Michael Clark rescued Erica E. Paff from assault, Bel Air, Maryland, April 10, 2024. Before dawn, Paff, 44, entered the dimly lit, enclosed breezeway of her house, where a 31-year-old man wearing black clothing and a ski mask confronted her with a gun. The assailant aimed the revolver at Paff and questioned her before ordering her to turn around, at which point he placed the gun about an inch from the back of her head. Paff’s fiancée, Clark, 54, business owner, was exiting the shower at one end of the house when he heard Paff scream in the breezeway. He wrapped a towel around himself before moving down a long interior hallway toward the breezeway. Clark was about 5 feet from the kitchen door when he saw Paff through a window in the kitchen door with a pistol pointed at her head. Clark swung open the door, charged the assailant, and reached for the gun with his left arm extended as he drove his right shoulder into him. Both Clark and the assailant tumbled through an exterior door onto the patio in the backyard. The assailant scrambled to his feet and as he began to run away, he turned and fired a single shot in the direction of Paff and Clark. The bullet struck Paff in the left buttocks as the assailant fled the scene. Clark helped Paff back inside before he ran to his bedroom and retrieved a pistol. Clark then exited the house and searched for the assailant for several minutes before returning inside. Law enforcement, using a drone, located the assailant nearby about 15 minutes after he had fled the scene. Paff suffered a graze wound; she recovered. Clark was unharmed as a result of the rescue.