Copyright © 2023 by Jeth Randolph
All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the author.
Mailbox:
“Hi Jeth,
I saw this today and thought it was relevant to our Tuesday evening training.”
(Jeth - Thank you for the video. Here’s the supplied background to this video):
“426,054 views 17 Apr 2023 #police #uknews #leeds
Police have praised the courage of a have-a-go-hero shop worker who tackled a gun-wielding robber during a series of offences in Leeds.
Marlon Stewart committed 13 crimes in the space of about 20 minutes on the evening of July 19 last year.
After buying a bottle of vodka at a corner shop near Chapel Allerton Park, he went to the park and confronted three 19-year-old males and robbed two of them of their mobile phones after showing them a handgun in his waistband.
At 8.06pm, Stewart, with his face masked and carrying the vodka bottle, entered the Premier shop, in Lidgett Lane, and threatened the member of staff at the counter with what appeared to be a handgun.
While he was forcing the victim to open the till, a woman customer entered the shop and Stewart approached her and threatened her to hand over the keys to her car. The staff member managed to escape from the shop while Stewart was distracted. He stole cash from the till and left the scene in the woman’s white Audi A1. “
Comment
As I saw it: shop worker approach is from rear and opposite side to the handgun. As the right hand is gripping the bottle.
Gunman is distracted and could have been “diminished” still further at this moment as there was also an opportunity to do that, although where was the handgun pointed? At a colleague?.
There is an over/under torso grab made by the shop worker, which soon transitions to an attempt at a left arm throat restraint.
Neither of the gunman’s arms are restrained and free to move.
After the smashing of the bottle and the freeing of the right hand the handgun is free to pass to the right hand. This happens really fast and seemingly with gloves too.
The handgun is used as an impact weapon by striking over the top and behind in an attempt to target the head.
As the gunman struggles and turns in, the shop worker is left with a headlock before finally catching a left C-Grip on the gun wrist, followed by the other hand. All through this time, the gun is free moving between them and muzzling the shop worker repeatedly.
The shop worker is also punched.
The report says “gun-wielding robber”, there’s no indication of it not working, being a replica, unloaded etc in the text. The gunman was also losing this fight as far as the plan for this robbery was going.
If it was functional and loaded, comments of “he bottled it” or “chose not to shoot” must be weighed against “accidental discharge”.
After a stalemate , the gunman is left to go still “armed”.(2)
Having a go
I don’t have any comment to make about the actions of the shop worker being right or wrong in so much as unless you are in that situation, you will simply never truly know.
Having worked in some crap places in my life, I can say that an individual needs to weigh up ahead of time what they are literally willing to die for in cases like this and indeed, any physical altercation these days.
But once that shop is robbed once, it’ll happen again and again in some places. One small family business near where I lived closed for exactly this reason of repeated armed robbery.
An older guy, sick of incidents like this in his neighbourhood, I get it and it’s a more stand up way to end than a care home ultimately. But this is a very personal choice.
He got facial injuries and also his name and location published in the press, it’s not just local well-wishers that might come calling after things like this.
There’s the aftermath of other possible outcomes to consider as well these days. Had the unfortunate business tax collector suffered a fatal workplace assault whilst in the carrying out of his divine and progressive right of “self help”, what then?
Trial by press? The digging up of the obligatory old smiling school photo from years back and an editorial lamenting the loss of a promising music career, well OK - maybe a comeback as well as the 37 year old “father of…” angle. I’m sure there would be some local hot heads or activists that could circle and score some social division points from it. Everyone would be earning something, except of course, the shop worker.
Our erstwhile tax collector was hardworking too, 13 crimes - er, I mean, clients visited in the 20 minutes leading up to this incident.
Decision making
Some knowledge of fighting simply must be in your possession before being able to fully weigh up whether to act or not or you may well be staring down the barrel of “unknown unknowns”.
Every situation is different.
The shopkeeper was cleared of the weapon during initial approach, but “grabbing and controlling as much of the weapon and / or the weapon - bearing limb as possible”(1) and then proceeding to batter and diminish the gunman as quickly as possible would have been a possible - other - option that may have achieved a disarm and avoided or at least lessened the muzzle exposure.
Thanks for sharing this, Jeth
Notes:
1 - Hochheim, W. / From Force Necessary Pistol disarming syllabus and author’s accompanying training experiences.
2 - Another press release found by searching the gunman’s name, stated that the weapon was a “Plastic BB gun”. Whether the shopworker could see this or not is unclear and also some actual handguns have plastic sections, so still unclear.
Got a comment or question?
You don’t need to create public accounts, just drop me an email at info(at)forcenecessary(dot)co(dot)uk
Anything I answer here for you and other readers will be anonymised.
Thanks, Jeth
My work is completely reader supported. If you find this content useful, please consider becoming a paid supporter for only £3.50.
Thanks, Jeth