As a straight-A student, Josiah McGuire is used to being honored for his academic achievements.
He has received numerous academic awards for his 4.0 grade point average and high test scores.
But on Tuesday, the 13-year-old scored with what he said is the biggest award he has ever received, the San Diego District Attorney’s Citizens of Courage Award.
For the past 26 years the District Attorney’s Office has recognized San Diego County residents who have responded with great courage in the face of a violent crime. This year there were five recipients including Josiah.
In the later part of 2014 and early 2015, the Eastlake community suffered from a string of robberies. A group of perpetrators would beat up their victims and steal their cell phones, wallets and other personal belongings.
For whatever reason, it was difficult for police to identify and capture these individuals during these incidents.
Then one afternoon Josiah and a friend walked through an Eastlake community park and the two witnessed a fellow teenager getting beat up by the perpetrators. Standing up for the teen, Josiah yelled for the group to stop.
That’s when things took a turn.
The perpetrators confronted Josiah and his friend. They asked them to turn over their phones and any of their possessions all while pointing a gun at Josiah’s friend.
Josiah sarcastically told them they didn’t want his phone because it was a flip phone.
Throughout it all, Josiah remained calm and during the confrontation he was able to see the perpetrators’ car from a distance; he focused on memorizing the license plate number.
“I didn’t want to elevate the situation,” he said. “It was a dangerous situation so I had to keep calm, keep them from doing anything crazy.”
The assailants only took off with Josiah’s school assigned iPad.
As the thieves sped off, Josiah kept repeating in his mind the license plate number.
His memory played a crucial role in helping police find and prosecute all the perpetrators when there weren’t any leads on them.
“Without Josiah calling that (license plate) number in and stopping that robbery and drawing attention to himself, that crime spree would have not ended,” said Deputy District Attorney John Dunlap.
Despite all of Josiah’s heroic efforts, he said he feels he does not deserve the award compared to what the other award recipients had been through.
“The other people have been through crazy stuff,” he said. “I just felt like I did what I had to do.”
Other award recipients included a survivor of a gunshot wound from an intruder, a grieving mother who lost both her daughter and grandson to a domestic violence incident and now is writing a resource book for grieving mothers, and a woman shot in her car only to survive and testify against the assailants.
Josiah’s mother, Lani McGuire, said she couldn’t be any prouder of her son.
“Obviously I’m very proud of Josiah,” she said.
“For showing that type of character and when I see him respond in that way it makes me think he’s actually listening to what we’re telling him to do.
“Sometimes you think they are not getting what you are saying. But when push comes to shove and when they are put in a situation where he has to respond that really shows his character, his demeanor.”
Today the license plate number still remains etched in his memory: “7BVF966,” he recalls without hesitation.
