Holly MatkinOakland Park, FL – A group of spring breakers refused to become the victims of a masked gunman at a gas station early Sunday morning (video below).
Aric and Alex Wisbey and their cousins, Jacob and Aric Tanoos, had spent Saturday night celebrating a birthday on South Beach, and were on their way back to Broward County when they ran low on fuel at about 3:45 a.m., WPLG reported.
Their designated driver, Alex, pulled into the Mobil gas station on Oakland Park Boulevard, and three of the men got out of the vehicle at chatted by the pumps while they refilled the car.
A moment later, a masked man in a striped shirt jumped out of the passenger side of a car parked at a nearby pump, and ran towards them, security footage showed.
“Give me everything you got!” the gunman ordered, according to the Miami Herald.
The suspect briefly pinned the three men between the pump and their vehicle, but it was soon apparent that the spring breakers weren’t about to give in so easily.
“When I noticed the gun, it was fight mode automatically for me,” Alex said on during a press conference on Tuesday, according to the Miami Herald.
“I was not going to let my family get injured at any point,” he continued. “I understood what could’ve happened when I approached the gunman and got him from behind. I knew that there was the possibility I could be shot and killed. I knew that. That’s my family. We die for each other.”
Despite the tight confines, one of the men charged towards the gunman and grabbed a hold of the weapon, the video showed.
The suspect managed to spin quickly, tossing the man to the ground, but the rest of the spring break crew was already moving in from behind.
They grabbed onto the suspect, pinning his arms by his sides, and quickly wrestled him down onto the pavement.
“Then my cousin, Jacob, gets on top of him and I’m in there, trying to wrestle around for the gun,” Aric Wisbey told WPLG.
While one man punched the gunman repeatedly in the head, another tried to gain control of the weapon, security footage showed.
That’s when the attacker’s shirtless accomplice ran over to the melee, shoved one of the spring breakers to the side, and began prying two other men off of the gunman’s back.
During the fight, Aric Wisbey managed to yank the weapon out of the suspect’s hand, then turned the weapon on their attackers.
The spring breakers stood their ground as the two suspects scurried back over to their vehicle.
“After we were standing and I had him at gunpoint, he did raise his hands and he was telling me, ‘Calm down, like, give me the gun and we’ll just leave,’” Aric Wisbey said, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
After an apparent exchange of words, the would-be robbers sped away.
Investigators later determined that the 9mm Taurus used in the thwarted attack was loaded, WPLG reported.
It has also been stolen during a car burglary in 2017, according to the Miami Herald.
“It turned out the best way possible for us,” Aric Wisbey told WPLG.
He and Alex, both of whom have concealed weapons permits in their home state of Indiana, said that they followed their instincts when they decided to fight back against their attacker.
“If there is a situation and a moment where you can wrestle the gun away or protect yourself, or your family or friends, absolutely do that,” Alex said. “Do not second-guess yourself.”
Shortly after the altercation, deputies arrested the gunman’s accomplice, 33-year-old Kevin Campbell, using license plate information the cousins had obtained at the scene, the Miami Herald reported.
“When law enforcement approached, Campbell ran,” Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Gina Carter told the Sun-Sentinel. “Fort Lauderdale police’s K9 found Campbell hiding in some bushes.”
Campbell has been charged with giving a false identification to law enforcement, armed robbery, and resisting arrest without violence, the Miami Herald reported.
His bond was set at $10,100.
The masked gunman, known only as “C.J.,” has not been apprehended.
You can watch security footage of the spring breakers’ encounter with the armed attacker in the video below: