An armed employee at Cleveland, Ohio’s Convenient Food Mart, crept up behind an armed suspect and foiled a robbery attempt.
The incident occurred in the Stockyards district around 10:45 pm Saturday.
According to Cleveland.com, the suspect, 26-year-old Frederick Thornton, walked into the business wearing a surgical mask, pointed a gun at the 51-year-old clerk, and demanded money. He allegedly became aggravated with the clerk’s pace and “smacked his gun against the register,” demanding the money be handed over quicker.
Banging against the register and screaming at the clerk caused enough noise that a 24-year-old working in the back of the store noticed the commotion, retrieved a handgun, and went out to intervene. The video shows the employee sneak up behind Thornton and put the gun against his back.
Thornton then spun around. The two began to wrestle for control of the guns. An employee came out from behind the counter, took away Thornton’s gun and fired warning shots into the air. Thornton then put his hands in the air at the sound of gunfire and asked the employees “not to shoot.”
While one employee held Thornton at gunpoint, the second armed employee ran outside to see if any accomplices were waiting on Thornton to exit the store.
Police soon arrived, arrested Thornton, and charged him with “aggravated robbery.”
Store owner Haytham Mustafa expressed pride in the way his employees handled the situation. He said, “Thank God no one was hurt. They really handled it well. They didn’t go overboard and didn’t hurt anyone. That’s what we wanted to do — hold him and let the law deal with him.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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