An attempted armed robbery in West Hollywood went horribly wrong for a would-be thief who targeted a retired wrestler, according to one witness.
The incident, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, occurred just before 1 p.m. in the 900 block of North Sweetzer Avenue.
The victim, who did not want to be identified, told responding deputies that a man in a dark-colored sedan was driving down the street at a high rate of speed when he suddenly stopped the vehicle near the location where he and his girlfriend had been walking.
Patrick McCloskey was working from home when he heard a woman screaming from the sidewalk.
“The chaos was so intense, I didn’t know who jumped who,” he explained. “I ran to the door to see what was happening. At that point, I hear her yell, ‘Get the gun, get the gun!’”
Investigators said the masked suspect exited his vehicle holding a handgun and demanded the victim’s Rolex watch. The victim refused to comply, and the two men began struggling.
“But he didn’t know that the guy was a retired wrestler,” McCloskey told KTLA’s John Fenoglio. “So, he was able to get the gun off the guy and wrestle him down.”
In footage of the incident, the victim is heard telling a deputy that he took the gunman’s wrist and put the man on the ground before taking the gun away. As his girlfriend threw the gun over a nearby fence, the retired wrestler held the suspect down until law enforcement arrived.
During the struggle, a second male suspect exited the vehicle but then quickly got back in and fled the area before deputies arrived.
“I was told the gun was loaded,” McCloskey said. “The guy who is sort of the hero in all of this, who was able to pin the guy down, told me he saw a bullet in the chamber.”
The victim, according to the WeHo resident, showed no mercy as the attempted robber struggled.
“At one point, the guy’s arm got dislocated, and he just held him down,” he said.
Video footage from the scene obtained by KTLA shows deputies arresting the suspect and recovering the firearm allegedly used during the ordeal.
Anyone who may have witnessed the incident or has information about the investigation is urged to contact LASD’s West Hollywood Station.
The post ‘He showed no mercy’: Gunman in Los Angeles disarmed, beaten by victim appeared first on KTLA.
