Greg McDougal helped prevent the teen robber from getting away.
Citgo station owner by Solomon YitbarekMT. JULIET, Tenn. -
A Mt. Juliet market owner is calling one of his customers "a hero who may have saved two lives" following an armed robbery Wednesday night.
Police arrested a 17-year-old male juvenile at the Citgo station owned by Solomon Yitbarek around 8:30 p.m. after the suspect was stopped, stripped of his knife and detained by Greg McDougal who had stopped at the station with his family to get gas.
"I had to do something," said McDougal who has a well-known music ministry in the Mt. Juliet area.
McDougal, along with his wife and four kids, revisited the scene with Nashville's News 2 Thursday morning.
"When I came into the store to pay for my gas, I knew something was wrong because of the way the owner looked at me," McDougal recalled.
"Then the boy rushed by me to try and get away in the owner's vehicle, but I shouted at him to stop and he did," he continued. "I then told him to put his hands on the vehicle, which he also did."
McDougal added, "With my wife and kids over there, the safety of them, the safety of me, the safety of the storeowner, it got me mad."
McDougal said he noticed a steak knife sticking out of the juvenile's pocket so he grabbed it.
McDougal said he was not carrying a weapon when he shouted at the teen.
"He has a commanding, preacher's voice," half-laughed his wife, Diane.
"Yeah, I guess it may have come out," her husband added.
Police, who were there in seconds, praised the 44-year-old customer for his actions as did the market owner who feared the suspect may have come back into the store because he gave the teen the wrong keys on purpose.
"The boy wanted keys to my vehicle to get away, but I gave him the wrong ones so he may have wanted to come back and hurt me," Yitbarek explained.
He continued, "That's when Greg came in, so now he's my hero and I feel he maybe saved two live, mine and the boy's."
"I could not imagine him doing anything different or anybody doing anything different," said McDougal's wife Diane. "You know you are witnessing a robbery in progress, you are going to stop the guy," she said.
McDougal added, "Mostly I grieve for this 17-year-old kid who's immediate future is ruined because of a really stupid choice he made."
Along with the knife, Mt. Juliet police recovered a small amount of cash at the scene and the keys to the car.
Yitbarek said he has never been robbed in the nine years he has owned the Citgo station.
The teen reportedly told authorities he was tired of walking and decided to rob the store.
He has been charged with aggravated assault.
