[Weasel Zippers] A former Army vet is recovering from stab wounds after putting himself between 16 terrified children and a knife-wielding teen determined to kill at an Illinois public library this week."He actually ran into the room yelling, 'I'm going to kill some people!'" James Vernon told the Pekin Daily Times Thursday.
Vernon, 75-- a retired Caterpillar technology worker and Army vet--is recovering from surgery at his home in Morton, Illinois. He was leading a chess club meeting with local kids at the Morton library Tuesday afternoon when Dustin Brown, 19, burst into the room holding a knife in each hand and threatening the children.
"I failed my mission to kill everyone," Brown told police Thursday, according to a prosecutor's court affidavit that accompanied formal charges, including attempted murder.