It’s a case of being the wrong place at the wrong time for an assault suspect accused of stabbing two people, including a teenager, apparently accidentally on a Manhattan street.
That’s because a passer-by – a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt – chased him down and helped bring him to court.
Ro Malabanan went to work on Wednesday when he saw the suspect punching a construction worker in SoHo before running away. In an exclusive interview with NBC New York, Malabanan said that he was worried that the suspect would attack another person – so he decided to intervene.
“I walked over to the guy who got hit, to check if he was okay. He said he wasn’t okay… Immediately, my martial arts side kicked in and I was like let’s go stop this guy,” Malabanan recalled. “Who knows what he can do… My jiu-jitsu training kicked in, and as soon as I jumped on his back, he tried to push me away from him. to him, I had what is called a seat belt, which helped me pull him down to the ground.”
After pinning him down, the martial arts expert stayed on top of the suspect until the police arrived. Malabanan’s good work was captured on video, which quickly went viral on the internet.
Malabanan was born in the Philippines but grew up in New York. He learns to fight, he studies jiu-jitsu – he knows how to defend himself. Now he is just thankful that his training “kicked in” at the right time.
“I don’t think I’m a hero, I’m just doing my part for New York… We New Yorkers are willing to help strangers because that’s what New York is all about,” he said. of Malabanan. “I’m very grateful that I was able to stop someone and use my martial arts. Being able to help people, doing it in the real world, is amazing.”
