Beaumont, Texas

From the Beaumont Enterprise of November 5, 2005

Mayor pro tem Samuel fights off attackers

With a single shot from his pistol, Beaumont Mayor Pro Tem Audwin Samuel drove off attackers who hit him in the head with a beer bottle in the driveway of his North End home Thursday.

Samuel, the Ward 3 councilman, phoned police at 11:56 p.m. to report the incident at his home in the 3700 block of Bowen Drive.

He told police he was driving home when he noticed two vehicles following him, one a white four-door car and the other described simply as a burgundy vehicle, according to a Beaumont police news release.

Samuel said four men got out of the cars and approached him as he got out of his car after getting home from his law office Thursday.

One of them told him, "I want to talk to you," Samuel said in a telephone interview Friday night.

Samuel said he jumped back in the car, started blowing the horn and reached for his handgun. Family members inside the house did not hear the horn.

Samuel said one of the men opened the car door and hit him in the head with a bottle.

When the attacker, whom police described as being in his 20s, saw the gun, he yelled to the others and they ran off, Samuel said.

Samuel said he fired one round at them before his gun jammed.

Samuel, who was shopping for a handgun for his wife during the Friday interview, said he normally carries his gun when traveling or working late at his office.

He said he was glad he had it Thursday night.

"Had I not, I probably would have been seriously injured or dead," Samuel said.

He said he and his wife both are taking classes for concealed carry permits.