Thread: WA: Customer takes out store robber with one punch

Customer takes out store robber with one punch

A man is pictured robbing a downtown Tacoma, Wash., market in this image from a surveillance video camera.
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Story Published: Jul 16, 2008 at 9:51 AM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 16, 2008 at 9:51 AM PDT
By Keith Eldridge
Video
TACOMA, Wash. -- The owners of a downtown market are calling it swift justice. A regular customer thwarted an armed robbery and put the man in the hospital with just one punch.

All too often the folks in the heart of downtown see robbers take the money and run. But at the D-Town Market, the robber didn't get to run too far before he ran into a regular customer who took matters into his own hands- er, make that fist.

This all happened Sunday night. The first part of this was caught on surveillance video, which showed the robber coming into the D-Town Market, pulling out a gun and demanding money.

Store owner Abdallah Alkasashbeh was only too willing to comply, not wishing for anyone to get hurt.

"I looked at him and he had a gun in his hand. And he said to me, 'Open the cash box,' " he said.

But while the robbery was taking place, the owner noticed Tony Johnson in the window. He's a regular customer who just stumbled into the robbery. The armed robber did not see him.

"I look through the window and I see him look at me and I see the guy with the mask and the gun and so I went like that ... Shhh," Johnson said, putting a finger up to his lips.

Johnson waited until the robber came running out of the store.

"He did what he did and came out the door. And after he came out the door I kind of caught him and got the better of him," Johnson said.

But Alkasashbeh knows Johnson is being modest. He said Johnson took out the robber with one punch.

"He did a good job, you know. He waited until he passed and he punched him. He didn't give him a chance," the store owner said.

But Johnson doesn't see himself as a hero.

"Oh, I'm just as average as everybody else," he said. "I I was at the right place at the right time, I guess. I'm pretty sure any citizen would have done that."

An evening that started so frightening ended with a store owner and his customer becoming closer friends.

"I respect him," Johnson said of Alkasashbeh. "We all live in the same place and if we all don't look out for each other, who will? I'm not a hero. I'm just a good guy at the right place at the right time."

The store owner wants to get together with local police to give Johnson an award for heroism.

The man who got punched by Johnson remains hospitalized. His condition is not known.

http://www.katu.com/news/25506874.html

Very Nice! I wonder if Bush and the liberal papers will be calling this guy a Vigilante soon?

W

Justice Served.