Metro detectives are trying to figure out if six armed robberies are linked in any way. Police say most of the suspects worked in pairs and are described as black males in their early 20s.
Detectives say six armed robberies overnight is normal for a weekday evening, but what's not normal, or even safe, is the victims catching the bad guys on their own.
The suspects hit businesses and people on the streets, some of them in the southwest part of the Las Vegas Valley where police have seen a rash of armed robberies in the recent months. But one of the suspects had the tables turned on him by a tourist.
A black eye was not the kind of souvenir Air National Guardsman Evan Skinner planned to take back to Oklahoma.
Evan Skinner explained, "When he pulled the gun out he just had it right to my forehead and said, 'Hey give us all over your cash.' And I was like we don't have very much. And he just went like that quick and clocked me. And I was like okay, that's fine."
But it wasn't fine for one of Evan's friends who didn't want the suspect to get away with it. The suspect started to leave with a mere $30, that's when Evan's friend tackled the 21-year-old suspect.
Skinner continued, "Frank had his right arm under control. James is laying on top of him. He had his forearms on the guy's throat and I'm laying on his left arm and just punching him."
The suspect continued to fire his gun.
James Wolff said, "Above all I think we got really lucky. Police told us the gun jammed after the second shot."
In this case, it was suspect Anthony Westby's luck that ran out.
"He was bleeding out of his nose, his eyes, his mouth. They had to put him on a stretcher in a neck brace," Skinner described.
Westby was taken to University Medical Center and is now at the Clark County Detention Center.
"It's one of the things you do in Vegas -- go to Strip, check out shows, go to Fremont, pummel an armed robber," Wolff added.
And though they manage to joke now, they know the outcome could have been much worse than a black eye.
Westby is facing several charges including attempted murder, robbery and battery with a deadly weapon.
Police do not recommend going after your attacker. The best thing to do is comply, get a description of the suspect, and then call police.
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story....&nav=menu102_2
cliff notes
- robber rob 30 bucks
- army dude beat him up
- happy ending
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