Smashby's Training Blog

I saw this link to an online news article today posted from a friend and had to check it out!

Army Staff Sgt. Eddie Peoples was home on leave, and at the bank with his kids, when a man walked in to rob the bank. After reading that, I thought there was going to be some crazy fight inside of the store, but it actually is much cooler than that. Check out a segment from the original article:

“The robber kept his eye on Peoples, 34, who has the thick neck and muscular arms of a professional soldier. The robber waved his gun in Peoples’ direction and warned that “the big black guy” should not try anything.

As the robber prepared to flee the bank, he pointed the gun at Peoples’ sons, Ikaika and Kioni, who were peering through the chairs.

Peoples does not remember the robber’s exact words, but said the man warned others in the bank not to try anything “or the kid will get it.” It was the wrong thing to say to a battle-tested veteran of Iraq and Kuwait who won a medal for helping repel a mortar and ground attack.

“When he threatened my son,” Peoples said, “I could not let that pass.”

The next few moments played out like a scene from an action movie.
Peoples told his sons to stay put while he went after the “bad guy” — a familiar phrase Peoples and his wife, Abra, use to describe his job to their four children.

Peoples jumped in his rented van and blocked the robber’s dark-colored Honda in a parking space. The robber rammed the van several times with his car, trying to flee.

When that did not work, he confronted Peoples, pointing his gun at his face.

Peoples said his Army combat training simply took over. He used his left arm to grab and twist the robber’s arm until the wrist locked, making it easy for Peoples to strip the gun away.

Then he used a martial arts move, a half Mui Thai clinch, to wrap one arm behind the robber’s neck and slam him face first to the ground.

Peoples had the gun in one hand and the bag of money in the other; he was holding the robber to the ground when a deputy responding to the robbery pulled up in his squad car.”

HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!

I am so thankful to have people like Staff Sgt. Peoples protecting us; not only abroad, but even here at home! Thank you!

Click here to the original article and you can see the interview with him, along with some grainy security footage from inside the bank. There’s nothing graphic at all, and you can see that even in the heat of the moment, he keeps his cool and the ONLY thing he does is protect his kids. SO awesome.