FRESNO, Calif. — Police in Fresno, California, have released dramatic surveillance footage showing a customer stepping in to prevent an armed robbery at a Starbucks.
Authorities said the video shows a hero taking down a man who will soon face many felony charges, CBS affiliate KGPE-TV in Fresno reports.
Cregg Jerri, 58, was enjoying his Starbucks order and working on his iPad at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday when a man holding a yellow bag and wearing an Optimus Prime Transformers mask entered the store. The suspect demanded money and began threatening the clerk with a fake gun and a buck knife.
Police said Jerri came swooping in, hitting the suspect with a chair from behind in an attempt to stop the robbery. A fight ensued, and Jerri was stabbed in the neck during the struggle, but he wrestled the knife away from the suspect, who eventually fled the scene.
Footage shows Cregg Jerri stop an armed robbery attempt at a Starbucks in Fresno, Calif.
Police later arrested the suspect and identified him as 30-year-old Ryan Michael Flores.
“There’s probably not very many people in America who would do what Cregg Jerri did last night,” Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer told reporters. “It was incredibly heroic and the way most people would think that they would respond but may not have the courage to respond.”
Both Jerri and the suspect were sent to the hospital with injuries. Jerri needed six staples in his neck to mend the stab wound, but police said he is expected to make a full recovery.
Meanwhile, Flores is in critical, but stable condition. Police said he will be sent to jail as soon as he recovers.
Footage shows an armed robbery attempt at a Starbucks in Fresno, Calif.
I would not risk my life protecting Starbucks cash flow, chances are the robber would have took the money and ran.
Cregg Jerri may be bold and full of courage but I feel he made the situation worse, if he intervened with a firearm to preemptively stop the robbery I could understand and agree, if he stepped in after an attack took place I would understand as well, but attacking a man armed with a buck knife with an IKEA chair is not the best idea in my opinion.
I’m with you. What that guy did here was very brave but also seems reckless and foolish.
If that gun had been real, the robber could have started shooting people or taking hostages. Ambushing the robber using only a chair put everyone in that room at greater risk. It’s a good thing the gun turned out to be fake.
Besides, who the hell puts his ass on the line to protect the profits of a huge company like Starbucks? I wouldn’t risk a papercut to protect a Starbucks cash register. If it had been some random citizen being robbed in an alley, then I could understand the desire to intervene.
Then again, maybe the robber was yelling nasty threats against the girl behind the counter, and the older guy thought she was in imminent danger. I guess we can’t know that without the audio.
All good points, I don’t disagree at all and we are on the same thought line.
I guess their gun-free policy and sign didn’t work for flores?
It’s fellas like this brave man that sends a message that we can handle defending ourselves as well as others around us without the police.
Any sane compassionate person would have done the same thing; do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
I thought it was do unto others before they do it you…..your way makes for a better world
There is always risk when defending life.
No one was killed because the coward police weren’t there during the robbery panicking and mistaking patrons for the robber. Its wonderful to see a real man taking action, even if he risked life and limb for a corporate pig like Starbucks. Sick of metro-sexuals and man buns.
LOL@ man buns
I work PT at Home Depot in a small AZ city. See them all the time, not just on young men. I would like to hack off the buns with a pair of nippers. Crikey!
kind of makes me a bit homesick for Chitago
YIKES!
Death wish? 🙄
I don’t buy Starbucks Commie coffee. The Good Samaritan shouldn’t have risked his life for Starbucks either. The Bum would have taken the money and run.
that thinking is exactly what thieves and the state bank on
agree…..I think more people are getting really pissed off
“… a man holding a yellow bag and wearing an Optimus Prime Transformers mask entered the store.”
I’d have whacked his stupid @ss for that alone.
lol