MANHATTAN (NewsNation Now) — A good Samaritan credited with using jiu-jitsu to take down a man accused of trying to steal a baby from a stroller in New York City is speaking out.
The incident was caught on amatuer video last week in Madison Square Park in Manhattan.
Brian Kemsley brought the man to the ground and used his martial arts skills to hold the suspect there until police arrived.
Kemsley is a mixed martial arts fighter. NewsNation’s Joe Donlon spoke with him earlier Monday about the ordeal.
“The bar for being a hero should not be set this low,” Kemsley told Donlon. “This was just a woman screaming who needed help…if you’re around something like that, you should help.”
He described what happened to Donlon: Kemsley was sitting on a park bench with his girlfriend when he heard a woman screaming, and when he approached, he saw the suspect pulling the stroller away from the mom, and the two tugging it back and forth. Two men were trying to pry the man’s hands off the stroller and were eventually successful. The mom ran off as soon as the man let go, but it was “the confrontation and crowd interaction after the mom left” that led Kemsley to intervene.
“I stepped in, I came up from behind, I put him in a rear-naked choke just to bring him down to the ground,” and then transitioned to a seat belt grip to keep him contained on the ground.
“It was just right place, right time,” Kemsley reflected.
Watch the video above to see more from Kemsley’s interview with Donlon.