12-Year-Old Boy Wrestles Knife Away from Big Brother, Stopping Attack on Great-Grandparents: Officials

A 12-year-old Texas boy is being hailed for his heroism days after he stopped a stabbing attack on his great-grandparents that was allegedly carried out by his 20-year-old half-brother.

The boy’s half-brother, Lucian Adrian Johnston, is facing two charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for his suspected role in the attack, which authorities say unfolded inside a car in Katy on Sunday during a “heated” argument.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office alleges Johnston was seated in the back of the car with his younger sibling when the great-grandparents informed Johnston that, as a result of his recent behaviors, he had to move out of their home. (Those behaviors were not further described.)

Investigators believe that, with the car still in motion, Johnston then used a pocket knife to stab his 92-year-old great-grandmother and 76-year-old great-grandfather in the head and neck multiple times.

It is unclear who was driving the car at the time, but both victims were seated in the front of the moving car.

Authorities said that both great-grandparents sustained significant wounds but were still expected to recover.

Johnston’s little brother intervened in the stabbing, say investigators: He pulled Johnston backwards, and then wrestled the weapon away before tossing it out one of the car’s opened windows. Johnston allegedly head-butted him during their altercation.

When the car came to a stop, Johnston fled on foot, law enforcement said.

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“He [the little brother] was very brave,” Harris County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. John Klafka told reporters this week, adding, “He did what he could.”

Klafka said that Sunday’s attack proves “domestic violence will affect anybody” and “it’s everybody across the board — the ages, the dynamics don’t matter.”

After the stabbing, the great-grandparents locked the car’s doors and then drove themselves to the hospital, where they received treatment before being released hours later.

“The real hero in this ordeal is a 12-year-old that was also in the backseat at the time of the brutal attack,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez wrote on Twitter. “He managed to wrestle the knife away from Johnston and threw it out the window, which successfully stopped the attack.”

Police searching for Johnston arrested him Monday without incident.

He has yet to enter pleas to the charges he faces and is being held in lieu of $80,000 bond.

Information on his lawyer, if he has one, was unavailable due to the holiday.

“This very easily could’ve resulted in two murders,” Gonzalez said on Twitter. “Surely, this entire family, including the 12-year-old, has new trauma to process.”