A hero grandfather tripped up an armed 18-year-old man in Ohio, allowing police officers to capture him after they fell behind in a chase.
The grandfather, identified only as ‘Bill,’ was waiting outside of a library in Columbus with his granddaughter on April 3 when he sprang into action to take down the fleeing suspect, identified as DeShawn Briggs.
‘”Bill” assessed the situation as fast as he could, cane in hand,’ Columbus Police said in a Facebook post shared on Thursday.
‘He heard officers yelling multiple times to drop the gun. “Bill” says with officers lagging a bit behind the suspect he did what he could to help them nab the armed man.’
Bill, who had a walking stick with him, said he thought the suspect had a lead on the officers and so decided to help them out.
Bill watched carefully and waited for the suspect to draw closer, then darted into his path as he passed by and stuck his leg out with perfect timing.
This tripped up the suspect, sending him sprawling and causing the man’s gun to scatter away as the man fell to the ground.
The grandfather can then be seen dashing out of the way as armed officers jump out of a police van and descend on the suspect.
Bill said: ‘He went one way and the gun went the other way. I could see him trying to pick it up so I got out of the way.’
Officer body camera footage showed an officer on foot with his gun drawn, running up on the suspect after ‘Bill’ tripped him, noting the weapon and shouting, ‘Gun! Gun! Gun Gun!’ and ‘Get down!’
Officers quickly ran up to where the suspect had fallen, face first on the ground, and took him into custody.
One officer can be heard saying, breathlessly, ‘You’re lucky you dropped that gun man. Boy, you almost got shot.’
Police said the grandfather’s quick moves, which caused the gun to fly out of the suspect’s reach, likely saved the suspect’s life by disarming him and allowing officers to catch up to him.
They recovered a 9MM Glock pistol with a magazine containing 29 rounds from the suspect, who was arrested and taken to the Franklin County Jail.
The officers seemed delighted with Bill’s actions, with one saying he could see the grandfather planning his intervention moments before the trip.
‘Community involvement, be it by courage, bravery and/or fancy footwork, helped take a criminal off the streets of Columbus,’ the department said in its post on Thursday.
Police said the suspect had a lengthy criminal record and went back to jail.