Watch: Armed Suspect Thinks He's in Control, Quickly Gets Taken Down by Security Guard
The quick thinking of a security guard may have saved his own life and prevented a tragedy at the hands of an armed robber.
The Buffalo, New York, security guard was confronted by a man who appeared to fire an AR-15 in a methadone clinic of Hispanos Unidos de Buffalo on Thursday.
Methadone is a prescription drug used to treat the symptoms of severe addiction.
Security guard Reynaldo Beckford recounted the traumatic close call in an interview with WKBW-TV.
The suspect entered the clinic Thursday morning, according to the report.
Security Guard is a hero after taking down a suspect that entered a substance abuse treatment facility armed with an Ar-15 assault rifle in Buffalo New York 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/MUhuaFD6FC
— Shannonnn sharpes Burner (PARODY Account) (@shannonsharpeee) November 15, 2022
Beckford moved to rush the armed suspect almost immediately after he fired a single round inside the clinic’s entrance room.
With nothing but his bare hands, the security guard ultimately succeeded in preventing the man from using the weapon.
Beckford restrained the suspect until two other men arrived in the lobby to help disable the gunman.
“I would be lying to you if I was to say to you I was not scared for my life and the first thing that flashed over my brain was my baby boy, who just turned three years old,” Beckford said of a moment in which the armed suspect could have taken his life if he had gotten the upper hand in a struggle for the weapon.
Jeremy Griffin, 48, is facing several criminal charges after allegedly bringing the semiautomatic rifle into the clinic, according to NPR.
He’s also facing one count of attempted murder in connection to the shooting of a woman on Pennsylvania Street.
Both shootings “were an attempted robbery seeking what we believe to be drugs,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said at a news conference, NPR reported.
“There was, at this point, no other motive other than an attempted robbery.”
Police believe that at least two rounds were fired in Griffin’s rampage, one of them in close quarters inside the methadone clinic.
The semiautomatic rifle used in the crime is not legal under New York’s strict gun laws, according to NPR.
AR-style rifles in the state must be modified so as not to take more than 10 rounds, and police said Griffin’s rifle magazine was loaded with more than 10 rounds.
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