Man learns the hard way not to threaten martial-arts expert
By Chris Freiberg
Originally published Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 12:00 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 11:39 a.m.
FAIRBANKS — A Fairbanks man got more than he bargained for when he pulled a gun on a veteran martial artist last week.
Jeffrey Walker, 44, said he was minding his own business shortly after midnight Wednesday at Townhouse Apartments when he received a call from the neighbor below him that his two year-old was being too loud.
“He just starts berating me, saying that if I can’t shut the kid up, he’ll shut him up,” Walker said.
Walker, a former firefighter who has lived in Fairbanks for only about a year, thought his neighbor would call the police or the apartment manager to complain.
Instead he showed up at Walker’s front door with a .45-caliber handgun. Walker, who has studied the self-defense system of bojuka since he was 25, leapt into action when he saw the man pull the gun out of his hoodie.
Walker grabbed the barrel of the gun and lifted it up with his left hand while simultaneously using his right hand to push the assailant’s wrist and arm into his own head, effectively using the butt of the gun like a hammer.
“It only took about five seconds,” Walker said.
While his girlfriend called police, he continued to hit the man until he stopped resisting, though he says the instructor who taught him the disarming move wouldn’t have been so kind.
“My instructor would have shot him after taking it away,” he said.
Walker began studying bojuka when he was 25. Its creator claims that it teaches people who to eliminate threats with a variety of blocks, grapples and strikes that are committed to muscle memory. While studying bojuka, Walker was able to reach level 3, which is the grade just below becoming an instructor.
“The guy who taught me said at the time ‘Right now you have to make a conscious decision you are going to do this if it’s ever going to happen. You can’t hem and haw,’” Walker said.
He felt that if had not disarmed the man, he was going to be shot, as well as his girlfriend and child. Instead, he was able to disarm Eric E. Backlund, 38, of Fairbanks without a shot being fired. Backlund has been charged with third-degree assault, a felony, in connection with the incident.
When police arrived on the scene, they found him sitting in a pool of his own blood with Walker standing over him. He was treated for facial lacerations at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital before being arrested.
He later told police that bringing a gun into the situation was “monumentally stupid,” according to a criminal complaint filed in court.
Fairbanks police Sgt. Robert Thompson said that there was no doubt that Walker acted in self-defense, but he warned that the situation could have had a very different outcome.
“You don’t want to try to disarm someone if they have a gun in that situation unless there’s no other option,” Thompson said. “But it’s not something that I would recommend.”
Thompson said that in nearly 20 years on the police force, it was the first time he had heard of a civilian successfully disarming someone with a gun.
As for Walker, he was packing up to move Monday morning in case his alleged assailant got out on bail.
“I told the owner of the apartment complex I don’t feel safe here,” he said. “He could start shooting through the floor next time.”
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