While most of us would run at the sound of gunshots coming from a bank, a mother's instinct prompted one woman to head toward the danger: 48-year-old Kathleen Khalid ran into the bank because her son was there cashing a check.

Upon her arrival she found a security guard struggling with a suspect with a gun. She helped him wrestle the man and detain him for police. For that act of bravery she's being honored with the district attorney's Courageous Citizen Award, it was announced today.

It happened in July of 2008. The suspect eventually pleaded guilty to a count of attempted robbery and was sentenced to 28 years to life. We imagine the son could never live down the fact that his mom saved the day, but we're sure he's grateful.

The D.A. is also recognizing two men who helped a woman survive an attempted murder and a man who stopped the beating of an elderly man in a traffic altercation.

Ryan Bertrand, 37, and Jeff Beaudoin, 38, helped a woman who had just been stabbed in North Hollywood in 2007. Beaudoin pursued the suspect unsuccessfully while Bertrand, a former U.S. Marine with first-aid training, helped to stem the victim's bleeding. The woman survived and in spring a jury convicted the defendant of attempted murder.

Reseda's Ronald Thompson, 24, intervened in the beating of a man who had just been rear-ended in a traffic collision. The suspect got out of his car and punched the victim. Thompson was on a bus and instructed the driver to pull over so he could help. The suspect drove at Thompson and hit him in the leg, injuring him slightly. The suspect, in turn, got a lifetime ban from driving.

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