Ro Malabanan, a New York City-based BJJ Black Belt, says his jiu-jitsu training kicked in when he took an assault suspect’s back and secured a seatbelt grip.
Malabanan saw the suspect sucker-punch a construction worker, and asked the worker if he was okay. After considering the potential for the man to hurt someone else, Malabanan sprang into action.
“I walked up to the guy that got hit, and checked to see if he was OK. He said he wasn’t okay … Immediately, my martial arts side kicks in and I’m like, let’s go stop this guy… Who knows what he’s capable of, this guy may hurt another person or worse… My jiu-jitsu training kicked in, and I immediately just jumped on his back, he tried to fling me off of him. I had what’s called the seatbelt position, which helped me to actually drag him down to the ground.”
From there, he controlled the man on the ground until police could arrive.
Video of the event was captured, and New York’s NBC4 covered the story and interviewed Malabanan.
