I had a real similar incident a couple weekends ago.
At my friends place helping him work on his truck out by the street. A women comes fast walking up and says can you help me this guy wont leave me alone. A scruffy refugee from the 60's, long hair & beard, tye died, bare feet closing fast behind her. They were both drunk. Hey says stay the F*** out of it, she's my wife. (I dont like being mediator in man-wife spats and he wasn't assaulting her so I kept silent while continuing to assess the situation). She took of walking and he followed. I watched them for 1/2 block when he trots up to her and grabs her by the hair and starts slinging her around, then starts to drag her by the hair up a side street with screaming, yelling, all that.
Well, I figured if he drug her up the street and bashed in her head with a rock, I should have done something. So I chase them down and tell him to let her go. "Stay out of it A**hole, thats my wife" So I say "You cant start assaulting her in public no matter who she is" and "Why dont you go sleep it off" and "let her go"
He cusses me out and slings her around some for emphasis. I say "Do you want him to leave you alone, or do you want me to mind my own business?" She said "Please help me"
So I grab him by the throat and draw back my fist and tell him to let her go and there wont be any trouble. He responds with more slinging her around by the hair and cussing me out. So I hit him two times in the face and am pretty sure I broke his nose. Plenty of blood at this time. He still wont let her go. I grab him by the throat again and twist him around till he goes down and he still wont let loose of her and she goes down too.
I'm still holding him down and attempting to get him to let loose and finally my friend hears the commotion and comes over and while I hold him down he prys his fingers loose from her hair so she can get up and she starts walking away. I held him down for a minute or so more then let him up. He started after her again but not so fast this time. I let them go and it was over. Feedback from neighbors later said the boys in blue arrested him for assault and took him in.
I was packed but the weapon never played a part in it in the least. I was very uncomfortable about the whole thing because they were married and it was likely NOMB. But I felt compelled to do something so just kept it to a minumum to separate them. This drunk guy was oblivious to reason and it was very frustrating.
My hats off to all you LEO's who have to deal with this type of individual on a daily basis.
I still feel kinda bad about hitting him, not my business and all, but also feel that I probably did the right thing.
So to answer your question, yes. As the situation dictates of course.