An armed robber got more than he bargained for when he held up a Colerain Township sports bar early this morning. His get-a-way was disrupted by a Good Samaritan who fought back.
It all happened at the Kahoots Bar on Colerain Avenue. The area around the bar has seen a lot of trouble, including a shootout that started when two men fired on sheriff's deputies last week. As Local 12's Joe Webb reports, the robbery at Kahoots was the last straw for one man.
It was quiet at Kahoots early this afternoon but this morning just before one, co-owner Rick Doerflein says it was a different story. A huge guy in a ski mask blew in the back door carrying a gun and ordered the handful of customers to the floor. “He pointed the gun at my forehead and pulled the trigger and it didn't go off and then he pointed it at Art and pulled two more times and it didn't go off.”
Art was customer Art Gomez...he'd just come out of the bathroom into the middle of the armed robbery. “He waved once, twice and 3 times and then hit me on the 3rd time. That's when I chased him and you know I was just protecting the community.”
Gomez took a good whack to the face but got the gun away from the robber and got him out the back door. They struggled in the parking lot before the guy got away and drove off in a black pickup truck.
What happened this morning at Kahoots is the second recent armed robbery in this strip center and the 2nd time people jumped into action. In August, police say Thomas Zimmerman held up Colerain Pizza with a knife. The owner and some customers at Kahoots ran him down and held him until police arrived. Last Thursday, deputies on a detail at the Bottoms Up bar, a few blocks away, were involved in a shootout...no one was injured.
Doerflein, who's owned Kahoots since May, is fed up. “It's just the area now. The area. Times are bad and people are getting desperate.”
Gomez says he doesn't want bad things to happen to the robber. And chalks up last night to experience. “Life is what you give it. All we take is life's experience and memories. And I'm going to remember this and you know...we need to get these people off the streets, man.”
Sheriff's deputies say the suspect is an African-American man. He is between six-feet and six-feet-six-inches tall. He has a stocky build and was driving a black pickup truck with a cap over the bed. The owners of Kahoots say he got away with about $330.
