A passenger on a Chicago commuter train captured the moment a fellow rider stepped in, as a man went around the car robbing people with a gun.
It all took place early on Sunday morning just before the start of the Chicago Marathon.
Jean Paul LaPierre, 54, had stepped off the CTA train and asked another rider why runners seemed to be suddenly rushing for the doors.
Boston man, Jean Paul LaPierre, 54, was on a Chicago commuter train on Sunday morning just before the Chicago Marathon as a robbery was taking place.Riders exiting told LaPierre an armed man was quietly robbing people on board and so he took it upon himself to stop him
'I said "this doesn't seem like the right way." He said "No, there's a guy on the train walking around right now robbing people." That kind of made me mad,' LaPierre said to WGN.
'He was very quietly robbing people,' LaPierre said to the Chicago Sun Times referring to a suspect on the train.
Incensed by what he had just heard, LaPierre got back on the train and decided to confront the armed man, later identified as 30-year old Tremaine Anderson, face-to-face.
'I went up front and said to him, give me the gun and we started fighting for the gun.'
'Once I got a few feet from him I knew he wasn’t going to be able to react fast enough to shoot me.'
'I was going nuts,' he said. 'When I see someone pull a gun it makes me angry, it makes me really, really angry.'
LaPierre then restrained the man identified as 30-year-old Tremaine Anderson, seen in pink
'I was going nuts,' he said. 'When I see someone pull a gun it makes me angry, it makes me really, really angry.'
Video captured the moment LaPierre tussled with the robber and held him against his will by the train doors.
LaPierre managed to pull the gun from the alleged robber's hand in the process as the suspect yelled at him to let go.
'I'm not letting you go! I'm not letting you go! I'm not letting you go!' bellowed LaPierre.
Unbeknownst to Anderson, LaPierre was a Golden Gloves amateur boxer who knew a few moves.
'I'm a boxer. I'll break your head in one punch,' LaPierre could be heard saying in the video.
Anderson attempted to wrestle his way out of LaPierre's hold, but he held firm
'I kept telling him if you move I’m going to knock you out,' he recalled.
'I could hit you seven times in three seconds,' LaPierre boasted, all-the-while holding the man steady.
At one point he handed the gun over to another commuter and asked her to put the safety on. The bemused rider declared that she had no idea how to do such a thing.
The suspect, meanwhile, was still determined to try and get away and told LaPierre that he had friends on the train who then tried to intimidate him into letting him go - but he managed to hold him until police arrived.
Police were soon on board and took Anderson into custody, meanwhile LaPierre went on to run in his 12th Chicago Marathon, pictured
'They started threatening me but I just stood in his face. The guy kept saying to me, "It's just a gun, let me go, let me go." I kept telling him, "you're not going anywhere,"' LaPierre said.
Anderson has been charged with one felony count of robbery with a firearm.
After the drama was all over, LaPierre, from Boston, went on to run his 12th Chicago Marathon.
Despite the incident on the train, he says that he still loves the Windy City.
'It's one of the best cities I've ever visited. Incidents happen all over. It is what it is, you know?!' LaPierre said.
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