An armed robbery at a Chick-fil-A in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on July 1, 2024, did not turn out the way a suspect thought it would.
The incident happened around 4:30 a.m. when a man allegedly smashed a drive-thru window with a rock and entered the establishment, police detailed in a social media post on Wednesday.
Officers responded to the store at 5075 Stone Mountain Highway after a delivery driver called 911 about the situation. The delivery driver, whom police identified as the victim in the case, said he was inside working when the suspect allegedly broke into the building and made his way to the kitchen.
The law enforcement agency continued:
The suspect told the victim that he was going to die if he didn’t open the safe and pointed a handgun at him. The victim told police that he didn’t know the combination to the safe, so he decided to fight off the armed robber. The two men were captured on surveillance video for several minutes fighting over the gun.
During the physical altercation, the victim was able to pull the suspect’s mask off his face. After several minutes of fighting, the suspect fled the location through a rear exit door and was gone when the police arrived. Investigators were assigned the case and immediately began canvassing the area for evidence related to the suspect’s identity.
Officials later identified the vehicle the suspect allegedly used to get to the business, and they subsequently identified the suspect as 51-year-old Tommie Lee Williams.
Video footage shows the tense brawl and the two men eventually walking out of the back room’s door:
The victim, identified as Kevin Blair, told Fox 5 that amid the kicking and punching, his thumb went into the suspect’s eye several times.
However, the pair “came to a mutual unspoken agreement to escort him out the back door and let him go on his way,” Blair explained.
Images show the suspect and victim during the incident:
According to police, officials obtained warrants for the suspect regarding armed robbery, aggravated assault, burglary in the second degree, kidnapping, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and criminal damage to property in the second degree. He was arrested on Wednesday.
Blair, who is a big advocate for self-defense and who has done martial arts training, expressed his gratitude to the police for their help and noted he is glad he was able to return home to his family, which includes his two children.
“I’m glad to still be here for them,” he said.