THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260380
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The cargo he saved on Valentine's Day was small but precious.
For his efforts, a 24-year-old sailor earned the Navy-Marine Corps Medal, the highest award for heroism not involving combat.
Petty Officer Third Class Nicholas Souris, a cryptologic technician, was honored in a ceremony Tuesday aboard the guided-missile cruiser San Jacinto, where he is stationed.
The precious cargo was two children, passengers in a friend's car that was carjacked in the Metro Machine Corp. parking lot the morning of Feb. 14.
As the carjacker took off in front of the sailor, his wife and two friends, Souris jumped onto the hood, then into the open passenger door of the moving vehicle.
``They don't have a reward for stupidity,'' Souris grinned after receiving the award. ``I guess this is all they have for what I did.''
The Navy didn't think what he did was foolish. In presenting the medal, San Jacinto commanding officer Capt. C. Craig Covington told Souris, ``Maybe one or two people react in their lifetime the way you did to an immediate situation. You did what you had to do, and you did it well. You're our hero.''
Souris; his wife, Maria; and their friend Crisha Kamphorst were at the San Jacinto, which was in the ship-repair facility, about 10:30 a.m. to deliver cards and flowers last Valentine's Day. Kamphorst's 5-year-old daughter and Souris's 19-month-old son were sitting in the back seat of Kamphorst's car as the adults stood talking nearby.
The car keys were on the front seat.
A man casually walked up to the car, Maria Souris said, and she ``got a nasty feeling in her stomach, like something was wrong.'' But she thought he might be part of Metro Machine's security patrol, so she asked if she could help him.
Then the man jumped into the car, and the two women started screaming. Another friend, Howard Slinger, had just come out into the parking lot when he heard the commotion and ran to the car. He opened the front passenger-side door, but the carjacker threw the 1987 Chrysler four-door into reverse. The open door knocked Slinger out of the way.
Souris did what he had to do. He was able to get inside the car, where he calmed both the driver and the children. The carjacker never spoke as Souris pleaded with him to stop.
Police pursued the carjacker through the Berkley section of Norfolk and into the Downtown Tunnel, finally sandwiching the vehicle between police cars at South Street and Elm Avenue in Portsmouth.
The carjacker did not resist arrest and was charged with abduction and grand larceny.
``I'm from Chicago, and we see stuff like this all the time,'' Souris said. ``So, you kind of go over in your head what you'd do if it ever happened.
``I guess I'm a hero, but I had no choice,'' he said. ``If I'm a hero, it's for thinking quick on my feet.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by BETH BERGMAN
Nicholas Souris with his son Evan, after receiving the Navy-Marine
Corps Medal on board the San Jacinto Tuesday.
KEYWORDS: CARJACKING HERO by CNB