Ensign honored for thwarting 2009 robbery - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Ensign honored for thwarting 2009 robbery

Marine Sgt. Sean Barner and a friend were returning to a birthday party at a College Park, Ga., apartment after going outside to get some fresh air when they saw the attendees sitting silently in the living room.

Barner started to ask what was going on when he felt the muzzle of a gun on his back — two armed robbers had entered the home and were holding everyone hostage.

Barner, now an ensign assigned to the amphibious assault ship Makin Island, said he had several opportunities to escape or hide in the course of the robbery the night of May 3, 2009. Instead, military training and adrenaline kicked in, and his actions helped save the lives of the nine other party guests.

For his heroism, Barner received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal during a June 14 ceremony at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It’s the highest honor a sailor or Marine can received for valor in a non-combat situation.

“He had two opportunities to just save himself from the guys doing the bad stuff, and he chose at both of those opportunities to confront those individuals and defend his friends,” said Maj. Tedd Shimp, Marine officer instructor for Georgia Tech’s NROTC, with which Barner was affiliated. “I think that says a great deal about his character.”

Barner enlisted in the Corps in 2003, deploying to Iraq for seven months in September 2005. At the time of the robbery, he was studying at nearby Georgia State University as part of the Marine Corps Enlisted Commissioning Education Program.

He switched to the Navy’s Seaman to Admiral-21 Program the next month, and received his commission in May, graduating from GSU with a degree in political science.

On the night of the party, the robbers stole money, cellphones and other items from the partygoers. Then Barner and the five other male partygoers were forced into a back bedroom; the four women were split into two groups and sent to separate bedrooms.

When the men overheard the robbers’ plan to rape the women and then shoot all the victims, Barner decided he had to take action. The sergeant, licensed to carry a concealed weapon, waited until the robbers were far enough away from the bedroom that he could grab the .40-caliber handgun in his book bag, which he had stashed in the room earlier that night.

“The minute I heard the two [robbers] asking for a bullet count — that question isn’t asked for any good intention. I can’t think of any good reason anybody would ask that,” he said. “When I heard that, that was pretty much the tipping point.”

Barner slipped out of the bedroom and his military experience kicked in — it was just like the urban assault training scenarios he went through in the Corps. He entered the living room, saw one of the robbers and began firing before the robber fled out the window.

He then kicked down the door to the bedroom, shouted for the women inside to get down and began firing at the second robber. In the firefight that followed, one of the women was wounded by bullets from the intruder’s weapon; the would-be rapist in the bedroom — 23-year-old Calvin Lavant — was killed.

“There wasn’t a lot of time to think about certain things, so my body just took over,” Barner said. “It was kind of like autopilot.”

While the partygoers waited for police and an ambulance to arrive, Barner looked around outside for the other robber but didn’t spot him, and gave first aid to the injured woman.

The second robber, Jamal Rashad Hill, was later arrested. He is serving a life sentence with possibility of parole plus 35 years in Georgia’s Smith State Prison.

Barner said he was humbled and excited when he learned about the award. The June 14 ceremony came the day before he reported to Naval Base San Diego for his first assignment, as a surface warfare officer on Makin Island.

When he reported to San Diego, he learned that Makin Island’s executive officer wanted to meet him.

“I come from a place where someone with that type of rank knowing who you are isn’t necessarily a good thing,” Barner said. “So, OK, it was a good feeling.

“It was a weird feeling,” he said with a laugh, “but I could get used to it.”