Scott E. Duncan

Scott E. Duncan helped to save a woman from assault, Eldon, Missouri, April 21, 2021. The woman, 51, and several family members were at a private service in the chapel of a funeral home when a man entered the chapel, approached the woman, and attempted to force her outside. The woman resisted and the assailant pulled a handgun out of his coat pocket and pointed it at her. The woman and a female funeral home assistant screamed. A male funeral director responded and pushed the assailant against a chapel wall and grasped the weapon. Duncan, 51, maintenance technician, entered the chapel, ran to the assailant and also grasped the weapon. Duncan told the assailant to release the gun, but the assailant refused. The woman hid beneath a nearby table. A struggle ensued between the three men. About then, another relative told the woman to leave, and she retreated to safety. The funeral director, the assailant, and Duncan fell, knocking over the table, and landed on the floor. The assailant landed on the funeral director’s back, and Duncan landed atop the assailant. Hearing the funeral director gasp for air, Duncan stood up. About then, the weapon fired, and the bullet hit the floor, narrowly missing Duncan’s leg, as it ricocheted off the floor, a chair then into the ceiling. The gun’s magazine then fell out of the weapon, and the assailant reached for a fully loaded magazine in his pocket, but Duncan grasped the assailant’s arm and held it to the ground to prevent him from doing so. Police responded, and the assailant still wouldn’t release the gun. A responding officer stepped on the assailant’s hand and used pepper spray and the assailant then let go of the weapon. The funeral director pushed the gun farther away. The assailant was taken into custody and was later convicted and sentenced to 34 years in prison. The woman and others were not injured, nor was Duncan.