On a New York City sidewalk, a man just went on a violent spree. The man terrorized pedestrians by sucker punching victim after victim. However, when he ran into a professional MMA fighter, the man just learned his lesson a hard way.
The alleged man was identified as Samuel Frazier, according to multiple witnesses, Frazier who is 28 years old began randomly attacking unsuspecting pedestrians as they walked down a sidewalk in Manhattan’s Soho shopping district. Frazier allegedly struck several people in the face and heads, stunning his victims with unprovoked attacks, sucker punching them while they weren’t looking, as they walked past him. As a result, citizens were shocked and terrified about the incident.
However, a professional fighter who happened to be there also witnessed what Frazier had done, his violent spree would likely continue if not only for this boxing instructor.
Ro Malabanan, a boxing instructor with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a yellow belt in judo, was getting out of the subway on Broadway and was walking through the Manhattan shopping district on his way to work when he saw the man punching a construction worker.
And after checking on the victim, Malabanan discovered that the man was also accused of assaulting six other people, as other witnesses said. He then ran the man down and subdued him.
“I just got out of the subway and I was on Broadway and Prince, heading to work and two guys who were walking towards me, a third guy showed up out of nowhere, just sucker punched one of the guys and punched him on the side of his face. And the guy that punched him in the face was walking towards me, and I got my eye on him to make sure obviously he doesn’t try anything on me so he passed me,” Malabanan shared about the incident.
“I checked up on the guy that he just punched and I was like, ‘yo, are you okay?’ He’s like, ‘no I’m not okay.’ I said, ‘alright, call the cops,” Malabanan added.
When Malabanan realized that the man had unprovoked assaulted multiple victims and punched them in the head, he then chased the suspect down before tackling him from behind.
“My Jiu-Jitsu instincts just kicked in, I jumped on his back, He tried to swing me off then, but a seatbelt position dragged him down to the floor and I immediately took his back and pinned him to the ground,” he said.
“All this happened in less than a minute, so checking his hands, making sure he doesn’t have a knife, razors, whatever so he literally screwed himself by keeping both hands in front of them because that forced me to pin him to the ground,” he added.
But other alleged victims of surprise attacks gathered around. Some assisted Malabanan in pinning the suspect, but others tried to attack the suspect. Malabanan dissuaded them and got them to call the police instead.
He said, “Out of nowhere people were like ‘Yeah this guy punched me in the face,’ ‘Yeah this guy hit me,’ ‘This guy hit an old guy. Just another day. A lot of crazies out there in the streets right now so just please be careful. They will sucker-punch you. They will take out their frustrations.”
Two officers then arrived and handcuffed the suspect, who was later identified Frazier as a homeless man. An initial police investigation determined that the man delivered unprovoked attacks to the heads of two males, one 50 years old, and one just 17. Frazier has been charged with two counts of assault.
However, Malabanan said that Frazier was blaming the victims, “They were walking into me,” Frazier can be heard saying, but the martial artist wasn’t having it. “That’s bulls***, bro, you still don’t punch people in the face for no f***ing reason,” the fighter replied, correctly. He also offered some general advice.
“Just another day,” summed up Malabanan. “A lot of crazies out there in the streets right now, so just please be careful. They will sucker-punch you. They will take out their frustrations.”
Malabanan, a New York City resident since immigrating from the Philippines at the age of 9, said he has frequently been harassed over his Asian heritage but has always been able to de-escalate the situation without resorting to violence.
Posting about the incident on Instagram, Malabanan said, “Everybody’s calling me a hero but, frankly speaking, it was easy work. Honestly, some of the white belts that I deal with in my gym, in my academy, were a lot tougher than that guy.”
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Sources: Taphaps, Yahoo, Themindunleashed