With a gun to his face, a Chick-fil-A worker in Georgia fought off an armed robber threatening to shoot him, saying it was thoughts of his children that drove him to survive the brawl.
Employee Kevin Blair took on the would-be thief, who had smashed a drive-thru window to get into the closed store. The thief told Blair that “he was going to die” unless he opened the safe at the Chick-fil-A in Stone Mountain, a city just east of Atlanta, according to the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Blair told officers he decided to fight because he did not know the safe’s combination.
Surveillance footage captured the brawl in the kitchen area as the two fight over the gun for several minutes in the early morning hours of July 1. Blair managed to pull off the attacker’s mask before the suspect fled through a rear exit door and disappeared by the time officers arrived.
Watch as Chick-fil-A-Driver fights off armed robbery suspect
Worker said he was not ‘going to make it easy’
Blair tried explaining to the gunman that he does not have access to the safe but the robber remained “very, very adamant that if I didn’t open the safe that I was going to die,” WANF-TV reported.
“Well, if you’re going to shoot me, I’m not going to make it easy,” Blair told the station. “We’re trading blows … I’m hitting him. He’s hitting me. He’s throwing knees. I’m doing a lot of blocking, but my main focus was on that pistol and keeping that pistol pointed away from me.”
Even after Blair knocked the gun away, the two continued to fight until the suspect ran off, he added.
“The only thing that was going through my mind is, ‘I want to see my kids,'” he told the station. “Either way, I think the situation was best played out the way it played out, because I’m talking to you today, and he’s behind bars.”
Blair says he has worked as an inventory specialist at the fast-food chain for over a decade, including two and a half year at the Stone Mountain location, WANF-TV reported.
Suspect faces multiple charges including kidnapping
Police on Wednesday arrested 51-year-old Tommie Lee Williams in the attempted robbery. He faces charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault, second-degree burglary and kidnapping, among others.
While examining the area of the attempted robbery, investigators eventually identified the vehicle used to get to the Chick-fil-A, leading to the arrest, police said.
A Gwinnett County Clerk of Courts worker told USA TODAY on Thursday that it was probably too soon for Williams to be assigned an attorney. An initial hearing has not yet been scheduled, according to the public defender’s office.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video shows Chick-fil-A worker fight off gunman who wanted safe opened
