When a gun-wielding carjacker spotted an 82-year-old pumping gas alone, he likely thought he had found an easy target. He’d soon learn, however, he had picked the wrong victim — and it was all caught on video.
The Atlanta Police Department released incredible surveillance footage after an 82-year-old man was targeted by a would-be carjacker wielding a gun while the elderly man was pumping gas at a gas station in Atlanta, Georgia one afternoon. But, rather than complying with the armed man’s demands and falling victim to the carjacking, the unnamed 82-year-old decided to fight back.
While pumping gas at about 2:30 in the afternoon at the Chevron gas station on McDonough Boulevard in southeast Atlanta, the elderly victim was approached by the suspect, according to The Blaze. “As I put my gas nozzle back and was getting ready to get in the car, I turned around, and he was there with a gun in his pants and showed part of it,” the elderly man recalled during an interview with WAGA-TV.
“I thought he was going to shoot me,” the victim said. “He just said, ‘Give it up,’ and I asked ‘To give what up?’ and he said, ‘You know what I’m talking about. Give me them keys.'” Appearing to initially comply with the gunman’s request, the victim is seen in the surveillance video footage hurriedly grabbing medical records from the front seat of his car. That’s when he saw an opportunity, though, and things took a turn.
“He said, ‘OK and you need to hurry up,'” the victim recalled. “I saw he wasn’t looking and I grabbed his arm with the gun in it and we started ‘tussling’ and we hit the ground,” he added, describing the moment he decided to fight back against the assailant. Thankfully, footage from the incident shows the suspect’s gun was tossed in the other direction during the scuffle.
“I’m just glad to be alive,” the elderly victim admitted, and for good reason. The suspect was able to gain the upper hand during the scuffle and break free. After getting up off the ground, the would-be carjacker allegedly grabbed his gun again and pointed it at the victim. “Do you want me to shoot you?” he reportedly asked the elderly man. “Don’t make me shoot you, man.”
“I said, ‘Please don’t shoot me man.’ I backed off and ran into the store,” the victim said. The suspect then attempted to steal the car, but he was unable to get the vehicle started. Meanwhile, the elderly man ran into the convenience store, seeking help, as the suspect fled the scene. The ordeal, rightfully, left the elderly victim shaken, knowing that things could have taken a much different turn:
“Oh, it scared me! It scared me. I thought he was going to shoot me,” the victim admitted, adding that criminals are now starting to pick on people they assume to be vulnerable, like the elderly. “They are getting desperate. That’s [why] they are changing to the most vulnerable people now.”
While the suspect, who’s been described as a male teenager with dreadlocks, definitely misjudged the vulnerability of his target in this instance, it could also be argued that the victim simply got lucky. After all, the suspect did appear to have the opportunity to shoot the elderly man after allegedly regaining control of his gun. Thankfully, he didn’t — but we can’t ignore the fact that he could have.
Although we want to delight in the suspect leaving empty-handed while the victim got away unscathed, we must do our due diligence in expressing the unnecessary danger the elderly man put himself in. He could have easily been killed for his car. If you are so inclined to fight back against an armed criminal, it would behoove you to be armed as well. As they say, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” Fists are very rarely any match for a firearm. Thank God, this story didn’t end much differently.
