Charles Ramsey has largely been hailed as a hero after his actions leading to the dramatic rescue of not only Amanda Berry but also her fellow kidnap victims — Berry’s daughter, Gina DeJesus, and Michele Knight.
After the rescue, Charles Ramsey became famous in part due to a candid video interview he gave in the rescue’s aftermath. Seemingly unimpressed with his own actions, Ramsey spoke of knowing the women’s captor and even sharing barbecues with him, unaware the man was keeping women prisoner in his home.
Since the events of Monday afternoon in Cleveland, Ramsey seems to largely reject the hero worship heaped upon him. Speaking with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the suddenly famous man again eschewed the label, telling the anchor his action were simple common decency:
“No, no, no. Bro, I’m a Christian, an American, and just like you. We bleed same blood, put our pants on the same way. It’s just that you got to put that – being a coward, and I don’t want to get in nobody’s business. You got to put that away for a minute.”
During the interview, Cooper mentioned a reward offered by the FBI for information leading to the whereabouts of Amanda Berry, but Charles Ramsey seemed wholly uninterested — in fact, he believes any money offered should go not to him, but to Berry:
“I tell you what you do, give [the reward] to them. Because if folks been following this case since last night, you been following me since last night, you know I got a job anyway. Just went picked it up, paycheck.”
Ramsey continues :
“What that address say? […] 2203 Seymour. Where are them girls living? Right next door to this paycheck. So yes, take that reward and give it to—that little girl[.]”
Charles Ramsey also told Cooper that while money concerns had kept him sleepless in the past, he had had difficulty since the rescue as he was troubled by the plight of the kidnapped women.
