Soldier home on leave thwarts Fla. bank robbery

[tomtsr]

Way to go Sarge.

Soldier home on leave thwarts bank robbery - US news - Crime & courts - msnbc.com

SARASOTA, Fla. — An Army staff sergeant home on leave in southwest Florida chased down a suspected bank robber and held him until authorities arrived.

Eddie Peoples was at a Bank of America branch in Sarasota with his two young sons Tuesday when a man walked in with a handgun and demanded cash from the tellers, officials said.

Peoples told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune he sprang into action after the man, identified as 34-year-old Matthew Rogers, threatened his sons.

"The only thing that went through my mind was, 'Don't let them get hurt,'" Peoples told the paper.

Rogers went to each of the four bank tellers at the branch and instructed them to put money in a recycled grocery bag, and told them to leave out dye packs or any other trackers, according to the Herald-Tribune.

He waved his gun toward Peoples, who is black, and warned that "the big black guy" shouldn't try to stop him. Before fleeing the bank, he pointed the gun at Peoples' kids, Ikaika and Kioni. "The kid will get it" if anyone messed with him, Rogers said, according to the Herald-Tribune.

"I could not let that pass," Peoples said.

As the robber tried to make a getaway, Peoples left his sons inside the bank and ran to his rented van, which he used to block Rogers' car in the parking lot. Rogers drove his Honda into the van, trying to bust through it. When that didn't work, he got out and pointed his gun at Peoples, who twisted the man's arm, stripped away the gun and slammed him to the ground.

"I've been through five deployments. I've fought the Muqtada militia, everybody you can think of, so weapons getting pointed at me, it doesn't really bother me anymore," Peoples told FOX News in Tampa Bay. "I took the weapon away from him and put him on the ground and the rest was history."

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[WHEC724]

Outstanding!

[ksholder]

Good on him. He brought a soldier to a gun fight and won. Fortunately the gun was a toy, but I doubt it would have mattered.

[gunthorp]

Well done.

[Chevy-SS]

Congrats to our soldier (he's built like a human bulldozer). Glad he's a 'good guy'.

[cmycek]

BG was lucky Mr. Peoples wasn't CC. Might have been a worse outcome than incarceration.

[Roland of Gilead]

[ArkhmAsylm]

"Did you get the bad men?" I think those kids may just have one of the best dads around!

Mister BG might have gotten away had he not threatened a soldier's sons.

[claude clay]

so the danger had passed and than he risks his life--the life that he will spend seeing his family grow--

and unarmed, he confronts an armed robber to what?? save face??

he prayed that nothing should happen to his children and his prayer was answered. than, was it his pride that made him to act in a mannor that may have ended his life?
no one was hurt, now its time to be a good observer and let the police do their job. not cause they get paid for it but cause they are trained for it, have vests and.....whatever
hes a hero and even better, hes a live hero

[Chad Rogers]

My only reality-based comment is to simply say that regardless of how many combat tours you may have under your belt, that reality has not in and of itself made you bulletproof. It may have made you a bad dude, but not bulletproof. Never mix up the two.

It is very possible that the fact it was a toy gun (per ks's comment) mattered hugely in the outcome. The bad guy showed by ramming the van that he was sufficiently desperate to get away. A man who will ram a van to get away would also have a high probability of opening fire also. (Those are the simple dynamics of trying to escape.) If he had a real gun...

BG was lucky Mr. Peoples wasn't CC. Might have been a worse outcome than incarceration.

The words dead right there before dirtbag hit the ground come to mind.

[WHEC724]

so the danger had passed and than he risks his life--the life that he will spend seeing his family grow--

and unarmed, he confronts an armed robber to what?? save face??

he prayed that nothing should happen to his children and his prayer was answered. than, was it his pride that made him to act in a mannor that may have ended his life?
no one was hurt, now its time to be a good observer and let the police do their job. not cause they get paid for it but cause they are trained for it, have vests and.....whatever
hes a hero and even better, hes a live hero

If you haven't had the proper training, doing what the Sergeant did would be nothing less than foolish. I'm sure his wife is still telling him it was foolish. However, there is a line between doing what is prudent and doing what is right. I make this next statement with extreme caution and concern that it is clear that I am not endorsing vigilantism. However I am concerned over an attitude that I see among many Americans that everything is someone else's responsibility and that they are personally accountable for nothing. The fact is that we as individuals are each responsible for the world that we live in. So whether it's helping an old lady with her groceries, or stopping a bank robber, we each have a moral responsiblity according to our abilities.

[oakchas]

While I'm of the "be-a-good-witness-school" when it comes to defending others USUALLY, I don't know how I'd react if someone threatened my kids. I do know that, if unarmed for some reason, I might not have the brass to do what the sergeant did, except that the BG threatened my kids. Armed? Different story altogether.

Depending on the observation skills of the sarge, he may have known the gun was a toy. If I KNEW, I would have been likely to act as he did, even unarmed.

The bank needs to buy Sarge & family a new van, the city needs to send his family to Disney world. Sarge obviously takes serving his country to the next level, even though his kids were endangered.

There's video of what actually happened >>>HERE<<<. also there's an interview with him...

Sarge had the smarts to have his children hide, and even moved more of the bank furniture in front of them...

Funny how when the sheriffs show up, Sarge is the one holding the money bag and the gun.... while holding down the bad guy... and Sarge was worried that he didn't have his vest on today...

[GunGeezer]

This entire scenario must have taken more than a few seconds to play out. And where were the police, you might ask? Only minutes away, seems to be a likely answer.

[mel]

to the Sarge and the rest of the men and women who keep our country safe. I agree with some of the other previous posters that I have know idea what I would have done in this situation, and I hope that I never have to find out. Congrat's again to the Sergeant.

[rammerjammer]

I think his cojones may be a little to big for his britches and maybe didn't take the wisest course of action. But he got the job done!