actbiggy
A fast food worker is being praised for a selfless deed that was only partially captured on camera.
A Chick-fil-A employee named Mykel Gordon helped in foiling an attempted carjacking involving a woman and a baby on the afternoon of September 14 in the Fort Walton Beach, Florida region.
The anonymous victim told the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office (OSCO) that while she was getting her infant out of the car outside the fast food restaurant, a man came up to her “carrying a stick and demanding her keys.”
Photo Credits – @OCSOALERTS
The woman claimed that the man then took her keys from her waistline, opened her car door, and climbed inside, leaving her yelling for help.
Gordon responded quickly after hearing the woman and forced the alleged carjacker to the ground through wrestling. According to a Facebook post by the OSCO, Molly Kelner, a witness, was able to capture some of the struggles on tape. As the altercation progressed, onlookers shouted.
She was holding an infant. How dare you! “a woman who is not named says in the video. “How dare you frighten her in that way!”
According to police, the suspect hit Gordon in the face, while the second victim did not sustain any major injuries. Gordon pulled the man to the ground and kept him there while witnesses came to his aid until the cops arrived.
William Branch, 43, of DeFuniak Springs, was charged by the OSCO on Wednesday with carjacking with a weapon and violence.
William Branch of DeFuniak Springs is charged with #carjacking with a weapon & battery after he grabbed car keys from a woman with a baby outside Chick-fil-A on Beal Pkway and got into her car. An employee intervened after hearing the woman screaming. Branch was wielding a stick. pic.twitter.com/J9sGh58Z2p
— OkaloosaSheriff (@OCSOALERTS) September 14, 2022
According to a news release, Gordon also disclosed to deputies that the individual had previously been involved in another incident at the restaurant earlier in the day. According to an additional Facebook post by the OSCO, the man was spotted opening the driver’s door of another woman’s car moments before the event that was captured on video.
Gordon was identified as the hero in the video by the Chick-fil-A in Fort Walton Beach, who also praised him in a Facebook post that has thousands of likes and hundreds of comments from admirers of the employee’s deeds.
This person is a hero! Mykel Gordon here! Reads the message. Our aim at Chick-fil-A is to “Serve,” but today, Mykel went above and above by “saving.”
Gordon was personally thanked for his actions and presented with a special coin and a community service award the next day, on September 15, by Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden and other OCSO personnel, in the parking lot where the event took place.
According to the description on a video of the ceremony, “He’s what we would call a humble hero.”
As stated in the video by Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Arden, “service is in our DNA, that’s our mantra, that’s our motto.” “You know you served and protected yesterday, but it’s evident you have service in your DNA from the job you do here.”
As a fast-food company employee, Arden later expresses his gratitude to Gordon for stepping in to stop the incident, but he also urges Gordon to get in touch with him if he ever wants to join the police department because “we may have an opening for you.”
