Sandy MaloneHouston, TX – UFC fighter Kevin Holland helped apprehend and subdue a man who opened fire in a Houston sushi restaurant on Monday night.
The incident occurred at about 11:30 p.m. on March 14 at Ra Sushi in the 3900-block of Westheimer in Highland Village, KPRC reported.
Police said there were about 50 patrons inside the restaurant when 24-year-old Jesus Edray Cardiel Samaniego pulled out a gun and started shooting it in the air.
Holland told ESPN that he and his friend, Patrick Robinson, were eating sushi when they heard a loud bang and people started screaming and running for the exits.
He said they could see another customer trying to disarm the gunman so he and Robinson jumped in to help.
They held Samaniego down until officers arrived on the scene.
Holland posted a video to social media right after the incident and told his followers there was a “shootout” and captioned it “I’m drunk and Kung Fu fighting.”
He gave an interview to ESPN where he explained that when he first heard the gunshot, he thought it was a champagne bottle popping.
Then the UFC fighter said he and his friend saw the struggle on the other side of the restaurant and went to intervene.
“I come up behind the guy – I grab a chair, I was going to smack him with a chair but when you get to the other side you can’t really see who the shooter is,” Holland explained.
Once he and Robinson identified which of the struggling men was the gunman, he said they were able to help subdue him.
“We ply the gun out of that guy’s hand. I go ahead and I pull him into my lap and put the hooks in, hit him with a rear-naked choke,” Holland explained.
“As soon as he was asleep, I let go of the choke, slid out on top, got full mount, stretched the arms out so he couldn’t reach for anything, grabbed his backpack and threw his backpack off to the side, made sure the gun was out of play, made sure he couldn’t reach anything, held his head so he couldn’t bite me,” he told ESPN.
“A few minutes later, I ain’t never seen the police pull up that fast so good job to the Houston PD, they got there pretty quick. Handcuffed the guy and you know, it was a wrap,” the fighter said.
“Nobody got hurt, not even the shooter,” Holland added.
Kevin Holland details how he was part of a group that assisted in apprehending an active shooter at a restaurant in Houston Monday night.
(via @marc_raimondi) pic.twitter.com/c5Y47T8ooQ
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 16, 2022
Samaniego was arrested for possession of a stolen gun, discharge of a firearm, and drug charges, the Daily Mail reported.
Police said the gunman had narcotics in his possession when he was taken into custody.
This isn’t the first time that Holland has played good Samaritan and assisted local law enforcement, ESPN reported.
He helped apprehend a car thief in Saginaw in October of 2021 while he was driving back home after a UFC fight in Las Vegas, according to Bleacher Report.
Holland saw the thief taking off in the stolen vehicle with the car’s owner yelling behind him so he pursued him.
When the car thief crashed and tried to flee on foot, Holland chased him down and apprehended him, Bleacher Report reported.
He held the suspect down until police arrived to arrest him.
Holly Matkin
