There is no need to overanalyze what drove four Hillsborough County jail inmates to save a guard's life Monday. They saw a life in danger, saw it was wrong and acted with the same sense of decency that people would in most any circumstance. But their quick response is a reminder that even those charged with serious crimes are not one-dimensional.
The four inmates rescued detention Deputy Kenneth Moon after a prisoner sneaked up behind Moon and grabbed him in a choke hold. Jerry Dieguez Jr., jailed on home invasion charges, punched the attacker, identified as Douglas Burden. As the men hit the floor, David Schofield, accused of aggravated assault, grabbed the deputy's radio and called for help. Hoang Vu, who is charged with attempted murder, and another inmate, Terrell Carswell, a sex offender facing several charges, jumped in and loosened the attacker's grip until deputies arrived.
The inmates said they acted almost instinctively to protect a jail guard who had treated them with respect. Moon, 64, works much of the time unprotected by bars or doors as part of the jail's "direct supervision," which seeks to foster collaboration between deputies and prisoners. Officials and inmates said Moon, a 22-year veteran, commands respect because he treats people equally and with dignity. Dieguez said he is pleased to have done "what was honorable." Schofield said: "It's all about respect." Carswell saw the deputy lose color above the neck and thought: "Nobody deserves to die like that." Other deputies arrived within seconds of the attack. Jail officials credit "direct supervision" with helping to reduce attacks on jail deputies by about two-thirds, to 22 this year, since 2006.
The compassion and quick response these men showed Monday does not erase the deeds that brought them to jail. But it does show that no one deed is necessarily the sum of a person's life.
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