Harrowing surveillance footage shows the moment that a father in Detroit fended off an attack from a gunman pointing a firearm at his head while he held his infant child in his arms.
The Detroit Police Department shared stills and video footage from the aggravated assault, which occurred at a gas station in the city on Sunday evening near the intersection of Hubbell and Tireman avenues, police said.
“We are attempting to identify a suspect in an aggravated assault,” the Detroit Police Department’s 2nd Precinct wrote on Twitter on Monday, noting that the attack had occurred on Sunday, which was Father’s Day in the US.
The department asked the public for their help in identifying the suspect shown in the video, and within hours, they’d announced an arrest in the case.
In the footage, a man in a tan bucket hat and a white tank top can be seen walking across the parking lot of the Valero gas station and towards the front doors.
A separate angle of the surveillance footage then shows the perspective from inside the gas station, where the young father, who has not been identified by authorities, is seen holding his 7-month-old child in his arms.
Without much warning, the father quickly reacts as he sees the man in the white tank top reach into his pocket and pull out a handgun, which the assailant begins pointing in the direction of the young father’s head.
The father, while still juggling his child in one arm, is then seen reaching up with his other arm and striking the man’s firearm, preventing him from firing at the father and infant.
Police later reported that they believe when the man struck the weapon it possibly caused the gun to malfunction, likely saving the father and even child’s life.
Within hours of sharing the post on social media, the department announced that they’d made an arrest in the case but were withholding the identity of the suspect as of Monday night.
“An arrest has been made for the Aggravated Assault yesterday evening at the Valero Gas Station at Hubbell/Tireman,” the department tweeted on Monday night, less than 24 hours after the incident occurred. “The 2nd Precinct would like to thank our community for providing information which led us to taking this individual into custody.”
The suspect had reportedly followed the victim to the gas station after the pair had been engaged in an argument prior to the near fatal attack, police told Detroit’s Fox 2 News.
The Independent reached out to the Detroit Police Department for an update on the case but did not hear back immediately before publication.
