He ran toward them.
“I just knew that there was a problem and that people probably needed help,” said Roarke Baldwin of Florence.
The evening of the shooting, Baldwin, 19, had planned to watch the new James Bond movie with friends. He was waiting for them in a bookstore when he heard shots fired - 13, he later learned.
The ordinarily calm mall turned chaotic. Parents called out for their children, he said. People screamed and ran outside
Baldwin phoned his friends: “Call
9-1-1 and stay out,” he told them. “Don't come in here right now.”
Then he raced toward the sound of gunfire. He ran instinctively, he said: “I didn't even think about the fact that the gunman might still be there.”
He ran 100 yards to a food court, where people had jumped over counters and pulled gates shut behind them. By the time he got there, it was nearly empty.
One man was down, though.
The man had been Christmas shopping with his wife and two daughters, ages 11 and 4, when the gunfight erupted. A gunman shot the man in the leg.
The man happened to be a Secret Service agent, so he was armed, Baldwin said. He identified himself as a police officer and fired back, according to national media reports. The gunman fled and a suspect was later arrested.
When Baldwin arrived, he could tell the man was in pain.
He pressed against the wound and talked to the agent to keep him from losing consciousness. Then, when medical professionals arrived, he stayed.
While investigators interviewed the victim's wife and older daughter, Baldwin comforted the little girl.
“She was scared and crying,” he said.
He kept her within sight of her mom, and he and the little girl played with stuffed animals.
“Honestly, I wasn't scared until afterward when I thought about it,” he said. “There still could have been real danger there.”
Baldwin's parents learned about the award a couple days ago.
“I cried,” said his mom, JoAnne Foley.
She works in a hospital emergency room and figured he should have run away from the threat.
“As a mother, I was proud - and yet I thought, ‘What was he thinking?' ”
Foley said her son's life has not been boring. He's rescued people before - such as his little sister.
One night when he was a toddler, Foley stepped out of the bathroom to grab some towels during bath time. Little Roarke came running after her.
He could barely speak then, she said, but he knew enough: “Get the baby. Get the baby,” he told her.
Sure enough, his little sister had fallen into the tub.
His sister saved him back a few years later, when Baldwin got stuck in a teeny willow he'd climbed. He'd almost fallen out of it, but he was caught and couldn't breathe.
His sister raced into the house to tell her parents, Foley said.
She said that Boy Scouts and teachers at Stevensville High School helped Baldwin become the person he is today.
That person fits in well with the Naval Academy, said Baldwin's company officer.
“Baldwin's innate courage and civility meshed with the Naval Academy's overall goal of building leaders with integrity and character,” said Lt. Derek Dryden in a written statement.
The Navy Achievement Medal goes to junior officers and enlisted personnel who show “outstanding professional achievement or leadership.”
Baldwin learned this from the experience: “I can say I know people can count on me if they need help.”
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