Good Samaritan helps nab robbery suspect

HOUSTON

That customer is a regular at the mobile gas station on the East Freeway and Uvalde. And when he walked in to see the clerk struggling with a thief, walking away was just not an option.

It was a dramatic few minutes that unfolded the east side gas station as a man attempted to rob the store. He thought it was just him versus the clerk.

Shortly after 8pm Wednesday, Todd Ross was in the corner store and had just left, along with another customer when the trouble began.

A man in a gray shirt asked the clerk, named Danny, for change but then lunged over the counter at the clerk.

The two men got involved in an all-out tug of war. Pushing and pulling one another for more than a minute played out.

About that time, Ross came back into the store.

"I went over the counter, the guy swung, but it didn't do him no good," Ross said.

Now it was two against one --the clerk and Ross, one of many regular customers the Mobile station.

"When I saw this video, I was like. man this is something," frequent customer Reginald Provost said. "It made me feel good to see there are people that actually help someone when they are in trouble."

The three tangled for another minute or two before the suspect was finally taken to the ground.

"He couldn't get up. I wouldn't let him up," Ross said. "Every time he moved, I moved with him."

And the two held the suspect down until the police arrived a few minutes later.

Ross says he threw a lot of punches.

"I know I hurt him, and I'm very sorry for that part," he said.

But if he had to do it over again to stop a thief, he would.

Houston police have identified the suspect as 27-year-old Pierre Thomas. They say he has an attempted robbery charge pending against him.