Team SOCOM Army Staff Sgt. Russell Ruth runs track during the 2019 DoD Warrior Games hosted in Tampa, Fla., June 22, 2019. Only three months before, Ruth had been shot in the lung while foiling an armed robbery. (Master Sgt. Barry Loo\/Air Force)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRuth thought he saw signs that the shotgun-toting robber looked nervous. He worried for the owner alone in the back with him and thought if he could get an open path, he might be able to disarm the guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He crept along the short hallway a couple of feet and peered around the corner, taking an angle to see if he could identify what was going on without being seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ruth had done that maneuver countless times in close-quarters shooting drills. But in those drills, he had a gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The robber was standing in the doorway to the restaurant owner\u2019s office, his back turned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ruth seized that moment, hurling himself forward and landing a solid punch to the man\u2019s head, knocking him to the ground and briefly unconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The staff sergeant pounced, covering the man to keep him down and separate him from his weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s when the robber\u2019s unseen partner, who was inside the office, fired a 9mm pistol into Ruth\u2019s side. It entered his chest and exited his back, he\u2019d later learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ruth didn\u2019t immediately feel the shot but knew he\u2019d been struck. The shooter grabbed his friend, and the pair fled out the back of the restaurant, leaving behind the shotgun and a hat the downed man had worn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The staff sergeant, too, fled the office, running out an exit to where his friends and fellow diners waited in a huddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m holding my side, hunched over and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018OK, I have a collapsed lung,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hunched over and holding his side, the pain now coming, he knew it was bad. The bullet had indeed collapsed one of his lungs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ruth told the crowd his lung was punctured, showed them where to apply pressure and said to call an ambulance before he passed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the crowd was a nurse and Navy veteran, whom Ruth credits with helping keep him alive until emergency responders could arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through five Afghanistan and one Iraq deployments, Ruth had been in contact, seen rounds fired but never been hit himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He spent the next few weeks in a hospital bed, questions swirling. He credited his training and experiences in high-stress situations for the actions he took and likely his survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In hindsight, Ruth said he didn\u2019t think through confronting the shotgun-wielding robber unarmed, he just acted. But while he recovered, a lot of \u201cwhat ifs\u201d crept into his thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result of his actions were clear, however. He may have saved the life of the owner in the back office, not to mention his fellow patrons and staff at the front of the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shotgun left behind helped recover DNA evidence that, along with video footage, helped link two men to the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ruth began his long road to recovery, which seemed slow at the time, until he linked up with some fellow special operators and competed in the 2019 Warrior Games in Tampa, Florida, only three months after being shot in the lung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the games, established in 2010 to enhance rehabilitation and recovery for wounded, ill or injured service members, Ruth ran the 100-meter dash and competed in wheelchair rugby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police arrested Anthony Curtis Raife, 24, in nearby Savannah in September 2019, six months after the robbery. They caught his partner, Justin Alexander Campbell, 21, in Virginia a year after the incident in March 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the investigation and charges proceeded, little attention was brought to the case outside of local news. Ruth was simply listed as a \u201cSamaritan soldier\u201d in federal court documents. Officials were worried early on that the robbery might have been gang-related so didn\u2019t release names of individual victims or witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, on March 3, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced that Campbell and Raife had both been sentenced to 10-year prison terms for their involvement in the robbery and shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time of the incident, Ruth said his command was looking into submitting him for an award, possibly the Soldier\u2019s Medal, an award for heroism in non-combat situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But unit leaders changed and after he completed his 10-month recovery he began the transition to warrant officer and flight school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warrant Officer 1 Ruth is now training at Fort Rucker, Alabama, to become an Army helicopter pilot, and that is where he learned that the two men who\u2019d put his and other lives in danger that Sunday morning would be spending the next decade in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n