Christine King: Good Samaritan stops man from THROWING BABY off Philly overpass
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: A woman helped quell a sensitive domestic situation on Thursday, July 28, when a man threatened to throw a baby from an interstate overpass. Christine King, of Bensalem, recalled how she was driving to work on Interstate 95 in northeast Philadelphia.
That's when she spotted a couple arguing on an overpass near the Cottman Avenue exit. King said it appeared the man, now identified as Raheem Murphy, was threatening to throw the child he was holding off the overpass. She then stopped her car on the highway and intervened to try and defuse the situation.
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“I couldn’t just pass after I saw the baby,” King told WPVI. “And after I seen him trying to throw the baby over, I couldn’t let it go." After exiting her vehicle, King tried to get the child from Murphy. “I said, ‘Give me the baby.’ And I put my hand around the baby to pull the baby from him while she was trying to pull the baby too, and I said, ‘Give me the baby,’" she continued. “He said, ‘Get off my baby, I will shoot you. I will shoot you.’”
King said the woman, who hasn't been identified yet, managed to take the gun away from the man after several minutes of arguing and pleading. The woman told King that Murphy was her former boyfriend. “She went behind him, he was shaking so he didn’t know she was in his pocket, and that’s when she grabbed the gun out of his pocket,” King told WPVI. “That’s when she put it in her pocket.”
Murphy did not want to let go of the baby even after the police officers turned up on the scene. According to the DA's office, he resisted arrest and assaulted a state police trooper before he was taken into custody. However, officers were able to safely take the baby away from him. The child was also checked by emergency medical personnel at the scene.
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Murphy, 35, of Bristol, was charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping for ransom, unlawful restraint, possession of an instrument of crime with intent, simple assault, terroristic threats, coercing/threatening to commit a crime, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, and harassment. He was additionally charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, and other offenses. The perp was preliminarily arraigned in Philadelphia Municipal Court last week and is being held as of Monday at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on 10 percent of a $1.5 million bail. He is also under a stay order and is required to undergo a mental health evaluation, per the DA's office.
King said she had no regrets about putting herself in the middle of a dangerous situation. “I’d do it again,” she told WPVI. “I didn’t see no gun, but when she took the gun from him, that’s when I seen the gun. He was trying to throw the baby over," she added.
If you or anyone you know are victims of/would like to report domestic violence, you are urged to contact the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-888-799-SAFE (7233) or the Women Against Abuse hotline at 1-866-723-3014.