Yes, sometimes crime doesn’t pay. And sometimes it’s the people who don’t have martial arts training, or who haven’t been in fights, who spring into action because their “fight or flight” mechanism goes instantaneously into “fight.” And so it was for Casey Borgen who suddenly saw a 19-year-old would-be robber pointing a gun at his face on a crowded Seattle bus. And Trevonnte Brown lived to regret it as Borgen pounced, some other passengers ran off in the other direction and some other brave passengers helped Borgen out, who wasn’t quite finished with a struggling Brown yet.
The video:
The New York Daily News offers some details:
The brave straphanger who lunged at an armed bandit aboard a Seattle bus while a gun was pointed at his face said he was proud to help subdue the crook — but next time he’ll just hand over his phone.
Casey Borgen said he was listening to music and scrolling through his cellphone when he looked up and saw the barrel of a gun aimed just inches from his nose on Nov. 25.
But Borgen suddenly pushed the pistol away and pounced on the would-be robber.
“I recall thinking as it was happening that it was a bad idea,” he told NBC’s TODAY. “From my perspective, I just looked up and saw the gun. … It was pure instinct.”
And, as is befitting a real hero, he is modest:
Borgen said the people who stepped in to help subdue the suspect, who had robbed two people on the same bus, deserved all the credit.
“They had a choice, and they chose to help,” Borgen told the news station.
Brown was later booked. Borgen, in his interview, sounded surprised at his own action. It’s most likely because the rational was overpowered by survival — and most likely outrage — modes:
“I’m fairly mild-mannered, no martial arts training or anything like that,” he said. “In the moment, with no real understanding of why a gun was being pointed at me … something just came over me.”
Which goes to show all heroes aren’t in sports or on the screen.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.