The incident occurred on Friday as nearly 4,000 students were heading home from school.
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood told Philly.com, “There’s no doubt they would have attacked him.”
The officer had broken up a fight between two boys, and was holding one of the boys back, when the other teen attacked him, according to police.
“As he breaks up the fight, he takes one kid and then the other jumps [on] him. Now he’s fighting two of them and he’s calling for an assist officer at the same time,” Chitwood said. “There’s a crowd of 40 or 50 kids watching the fight, and they all move in towards the officer.”
A gun owner, who has a concealed-carry permit, kept the teens back without pointing the weapon at any of the kids.
The two juveniles were charged with aggravated assault on police and related offenses and were remanded to Delaware County’s juvenile detention.
“It was scary to do it,” the gun owner who wished to remain anonymous told Philly.com. “Would I do it again? Of course, but I don’t want to have to.”
