MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Cellphone video captured a tourist’s friend disarming an armed man during a confrontation in Miami Beach, and the alleged assailant was arrested not long after.
Gabriel Andronic said he was forced to stare down the barrel of a gun while walking in the area of Collins Avenue and 16th Street last Friday.
“He pulled it out of his pants and just boom, right on my head,” Andronic said.
Andronic said he and Brooke Burch, his girlfriend, were trying to enjoy their vacation at the time of the incident. They said they encountered an angry man with a gun.
“I thought he was going to get shot,” Burch said.
According to Miami Beach Police and the couple, the man they ran into was yelling at them in Spanish, and words were exchanged.
Cellphone video captured the incident in its entirety. In the video, a man could be seen pulling a gun before Patrick Cormier, Andronic’s friend, went for the gun to disarm the man.
“Instinct, I just clicked,” Cormier said. “I went and I took the gun and got it out of his hand and was able to wrestle him down and get it away from him, and he ran.”
While shooting the video, Burch yells for the armed man to stop while the pistol was wrestled away by their friend.
“I took a video just so we would have some identification of the guy,” Burch said.
Police said after the man was stripped of his weapon and fled the area, they arrested 37-year-old Eduardo Mendez nearby.
Andronic said he is grateful for the fast response from officers and his brave friend.
“They found the guy very quick,” he said. “It was probably like the best thing that someone has ever done for me.”
“I told everyone that night, I was like, ‘Don’t let this ruin our vacation,'” Cormier said.
When asked about Miami Beach as a vacation destination, Andronic said, “We’re probably going to definitely consider going somewhere else next year, so that’s how I feel about Miami.”
Cormier added he has routine firearms training and is a licensed carrier of a firearm.
Mendez remains jailed and faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and drug charges. Police said he was high on meth and had paraphernalia on him, as well.
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