New York – A Brooklyn florist turned the tables on a would be robber on Friday, disarming the armed gunman and holding him for police.
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“He is lucky to be alive,” Moti Azreal, owner of A&M Wholesale Flowers and Supplies told VIN News. “He pulled the trigger on me. I had every right to kill him.”
The botched robbery took place on Friday afternoon at approximately 5:30 PM, when 33 year old Keith Martin walked into the flower shop at 105 Avenue J near McDonald Avenue.
“He came in, asked about roses and how much they are,” said Azreal. “I told him there were $10 a dozen and he pulled a gun and held it to my face.”
Martin demanded both the money in Azreal’s register and his phone.
“I told him the phone was charging and when he looked at the phone on the shelf for a second he broke eye contact,” said Azreal. “I knew I could take him.”
The 44 year old Azreal estimated that Martin was about 5’9 and 185 pounds. As a former member of a special forces unit in the Israeli Defense Force, Azreal never doubted his ability to take down the armed robber.
“I knew I could do it, no problem,” said Azreal.
The two struggled briefly inside the store, with Azreal punching Martin in the face several times. Martin dropped his gun inside the store and the confrontation continued outside on the street.
“I held him down until police came a few minutes later,” said Azreal.
Police said that they recovered Martin’s gun, a Heritage Rough Rider 22 caliber revolver, from a trash barrel.
Martin, who has three prior sealed arrests, was charged with robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, assault and harassment.
Three days after the attempted robbery, Azreal is grateful that it didn’t happen a week earlier.
“I’m glad he came after Shavuos because before Shavuos there would have been a million people in the store,” noted Azreal.
congratulations on a great job done..Hashem was watching over you and you are one Lucky man
Very foolish to confront an armed man. Even if your well trained. One wrong move or unfortunate occurrence and it’s over. What to do you have to lose? Your cash? It’s replaceable! Your phone? Replaceable! Your life…
Way to go Moti!!!! If every Yid could defend himself/herself we definitely wouldn’t be targeted as sheepish victims. IDF training is great!
He must of thought he is a partner as the last initial of the owner and the robber is the name of the store.
Too bad he only beat the bleep out of this vermin human trash. He should have killed him. Now vermin is gonna come back with his fellow hoodlums.
It was quite scary. I live in the neighborhood and there were a lot of kids playing outside at that time. I’m so glad no one got hurt – except for the would-be robber. Way to go Moti!
Kol Hakavod – you took a low life off the streets of Brooklyn.
Boruch Hashem this story had a great result. We should all have IDF training!
as they say: tzochek mi shetzochek acharon!!! may hashem protect us all
To #’s 2 and 11- There is no guarantee that even if the store owner complied, the low life robber wouldn’t have fired his weapon, anyway. Some of these robbers are sadistic, and others don’t want a live witness. Therefore, I’m glad that he disarmed the robber. However, before the cops came, he would have been justified in beating the heck out of that low life, trash! Ye’Yasha Koach, to Moti! We need more Yidden like him.
Grand MasterBruce Lee was killed by a gun! So while I’m So happy for him and I’m sure thank God his IDF training certainly helped, the outcome is never certain in such a case. Many times if you just comply they leave you alone in my opinion. Again it’s never clear, but more times than not I think it’s better to give any material thing they ask. To call it sheepish to comply with a man with a loaded gun is ludicrous!
Its nice we can judge this person from the comfort of our homes. A person who is a special forces trained combat vet is very different than the guy with a blackbelt from his local karate class. He knows what he is capable of and what he isnt capable of. Furthermore, he will have reactions and instincts that kick in when faced with a situation like this that may not be so easy to suppress.
I know a young father, also former israeli special forces, who resisted an armed robber in his jewelry store…he lives to tell the tale but he was shot in the hip and walks with a very pronounced limp, years later.