Soldier foils bank robber
Iraq veteran Staff Sgt. Eddie Peoples took time out from his vacation in Sarasota, FL this week to fight a bad guy here at home. Peoples was at the bank with his two sons when Matthew Rogers entered brandishing a gun and ordering everyone on the floor. Reports The Stars & Stripes;
As the robber left and walked toward his get-away car, Peoples followed, leaving his kids in the bank. Peoples’ van was closer to the entrance and he reached his vehicle first. He said he hurriedly drove at Rogers’ car and blocked its escape.
After a brief confrontation in which the bank robber trained his weapon on him, Peoples disarmed and subdued Rogers, and grabbed the bank bag. It took police a few minutes to sort out who was who before they arrested Rogers.
“All of my deployments, except for the last one, have been hairy,” Peoples said. “I honestly didn’t look at it as a big thing. I really don’t consider myself a hero.”
Turns out the gun was a BB-gun, but that doesn’t take anything away from the 34-year-old dad and soldier.
Once Rogers was in police custody, Peoples returned to the bank to get his two boys. When he entered the lobby, the bank’s occupants erupted in cheers.
As they should.
Category: Real Soldiers
You just know that some “concerned citizen” will complain that he left his kids in the bank. In their twisted world view he should have stayed and done nothing.
HOOAH!
Get Some!
The local Fox affiliate has a story and video interview with the SSG here.
My second favorite quote (in the Fox story and video):
“I’ve been through five deployments. I’ve fought the Muqtada militia, everybody you can think of, so weapons getting pointed at me, it doesn’t really bother me anymore”
#1 favorite:
“Every time I get deployed, I always tell my children I’m going to fight the bad men. When I walked back in the bank, my oldest boy said ‘did you get the bad men?’ and I said ‘yep, I got the bad men’ and everyone applauded,”
While I am happy that this ended up with no one hurt, and I’m sorry to be a spoil sport, but I disagree with his course of action.
The bank robber left the bank and was walking to his get away car with no one hurt in the bank. Then SSG. Peoples took it upon himself to leave the bank to not only follow him, but escalated the situation by blocking the robber’s path and in ‘forcing’ him to pull a weapon. Yes it was a BB, but still there is no denying that the action of the soldier was in my opinion unwarranted.
If in fact the robber had a real gun and ended up killing People’s, that leaves behind his kids that will grow up without a father.
People can disagree and flame me all they want, but in this situation I believe his actions were unnecessary.
T man
‘Nadless.
‘Nuff said.
Last night, I watched the interview he’d done won FNC’s Happening Now earlier in the day. He said he’d been told Rogers “voided his bowels” during their confrontation….LOL
Hey Woodman I agree, a ” A Coward dies a thousand deaths,a Brave man dies once.”
I’d rather be ‘nadless’ in that sort of situation than try to be a Chuck Norris and my kids end up without a father. There’s a fine line between heroism and being reckless.
Now if it were a situation where there was a bank robbery and one or more of the customers were in imminent danger of being shot and killed, and someone reacted to try and disarm the robber, then I would completely understand.
However, this soldier unnecessarily risked not only his life, but potentially those of others, by deciding to follow and act like a one man gang, in a situation that did not warrant it. The bank robber left without hurting anyone, not that I condone what the robber did and wish his kind extinct.
I can assure you if it were a bank teller/employee of the bank that did this, that person would immediately be terminated. Similar incidents of store employees going out of their way to try and confront and apprehend shoplifters have also resulted in termination.
Because in this case it was a soldier, it probably mutes some from criticizing his actions, which is understandable. I’m not trying to say this soldier is a bad person, but I’m not going to blindly approve what he did either.
“A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man dies once.”
Totally agree, #6 and #8, but… the coward will always dispute that the brave man is nobody’s victim but his own… so, in the end, who’s right and who’s wrong?
T-man, you are entitled to your opinion, and here’s mine: you make a great subject, the Sgt makes a great citizen. Not my job, leave it to the experts, risk nothing, follow ze rules, and feel smug about it – good subject to the highest order. Take initiative, use training and experience, stand up for yourself and those around you, fix a problem on your own — good citizen to the highest order.
BZ Staff Sgt. Peoples!
Tmam, er, T”man?”,
I’m sure that SSG Peoples, having been in Iraq, knows a thing or two about staying out of harm’s way as much as possible, while still getting the job done. He IS a trained professional.
As LW #11 said, there are serfs, and there are citizens. You’d make a GREAT serf.
Now quit projecting your cowardice onto others.
And I hope you don’t have any children to pass along your ‘nadless gene to.
Tman; I’m not going to flame you, howeverI don’t agree with your analysis for a couple reasons.
1. The good SSG was on the scene and in close proximity to the robber inside the bank and could observe his mannerisms and actions.
2. With his combat experience coming to the fore, he felt that he could stop the robber once outside and away from everyone in the bank, which he did by isolating the perp in the parking lot.
He wasn’t being a “John Wayne” or “Chuck Norris”, he probably had already analyzed the situation to where the best opportunity to stop the robber and where there would be a minimal amount of risk to anyone else. Even had it been a real gun, Peoples was probably in no more risk, because he took situational control away from the perp and that bought him the time he needed to subdue him.
Tman, Peoples didn’t “escalate” the situation, the robber was already waving the gun around. And perhaps you noticed that Peoples didn’t do anything in the bank, but “took it outside.” Was it worth the risk over a bag of money? That’s a slippery slope because once you start letting the little things go, things start to “escalate.” (That term may sound familiar to you.) Peoples is unquestionably a hero in the broadest sense, and petty criminals should be slapped down hard and quick.
SSG Peoples did what all Sheep Dogs do – protect the sheep. I would rather be a wounded or dead Sheep dog than a frightened sheep anyday.
As a T-shirt says “Warriors raise up Warriors”. Good job Dad Peoples for being such a great example for your children.
Security camera footage has been released. It is included with this story.
According to this one the local sheriff wants him to apply for a job when leaves the military.
[…] and his children at the business end of a bank robber’s handgun at the Bank of America. We discussed SSG Peoples’ heroism last […]