Home Christian News ‘This Is the HERO!’—Chick-fil-A Employee Tackles Man Who Allegedly Threatened Woman and...

‘This Is the HERO!’—Chick-fil-A Employee Tackles Man Who Allegedly Threatened Woman and Infant

fort walton beach Mykel Gordon
L: Screenshot from Twitter / @OliviaIversonTV. R: Screenshot from Twitter / @OCSOALERTS

A Chick-fil-A employee in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, tackled a man who was allegedly attempting to carjack a vehicle from a woman holding her baby on the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 14. Mykel Gordon successfully wrestled the perpetrator to the ground despite getting punched in the face during the altercation. 

“This is the HERO!” said the Chick-fil-A of FORT WALTON BEACH in a Facebook post. “This is Mykel Gordon! At Chick-fil-A our mission is to ‘Serve’ and today Mykel took it further……to ‘Save.’”

Fort Walton Beach Chick-fil-A Employee Stops Threat

According to a press release from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO), a woman was getting her infant out of her car on Wednesday afternoon when a man, identified as William Branch (43) threatened her with a stick and grabbed her keys from her waistband. Branch then got in the woman’s vehicle. 

Gordon heard the woman screaming and ran to help, pulling Branch from the car. A video taken by a bystander and posted by the sheriff’s office shows Gordon and Branch wrestling on the ground while someone calls for aid. The young man subdues Branch as other people rush to assist. Near the end of the video, an onlooker with a baby of her own starts chastising Branch, yelling, “She had a baby in her hands! How dare you!” 

The sheriff’s office has charged Branch with carjacking with a weapon and battery. Police say that Gordon was not seriously injured.

“A major shout-out to this young man for his courage!” said the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office on Twitter. On Thursday, Sheriff Eric Aden and other OCSO officers met Gordon at Chick-fil-A to formally thank him and present him with an award. Aden praised Gordon for his desire to “serve and protect” and said that while he is glad that Gordon works for Chick-fil-A, “If you ever are interested, we certainly have an opening for you, and we’d be honored to sponsor you as a cadet.”

“I appreciate that very, very much,” Gordon replied. Aden then presented Gordon with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Community Service Award, while another OCSO officer read the “story” of the events behind the award.

The officer revealed that prior to accosting the woman and her baby, Branch had attempted to carjack a vehicle from a different woman at Chick-fil-A, but that Gordon and a male customer had confronted Branch and chased him away. The officer said that Branch used a “sharpened plank” to threaten both victims. Furthermore, before the incidents at Chick-fil-A, Branch had broken into someone’s home in Fort Walton Beach and tried to steal a purse before the homeowner confronted him.