A local BJJ black belt in Denver, Ismael Arreola, intervened when a bar patron started to get aggressive with several customers, taking him down and restraining him until the police could arrive. He didn’t just do it alone however, as he also had help from fellow BJJ practitioner and purple belt, Thiago Leao. Arreola trains out of Easton BJJ and both men shared footage of the incident after it occurred.
A BJJ black belt under Albert Hughes, Arreola explained the backstory to the footage of him restraining the bar patron until police arrive, as per JiuJitsuTimes:
“Before the video, the guy had already punched and elbowed another patron in the face and then walked toward us. As he was walking toward us, he shoved my friend and then started throwing punches at me. I closed the gap and started veering him toward the wall, where the video started.
As you can see, I used a basic 2-on-1 wrist control to guide him toward the ground. I had a deep guillotine applied once I took him to the ground, and it’s hard to see in the video, but I was applying just the right amount of pressure to help keep him from coming back up and fighting us. It was a really scary moment when he kept bucking up trying to keep throwing. So thankful that my other friend was there too, but also grateful for having the right training to be able to diffuse the situation.”
This isn’t the first time that someone with a decent amount of training in Jiu-Jitsu has been able to restrain someone until police arrive, and it probably won’t be the last either. In fact, BJJ is generally so effective in teaching someone how to deal with an unarmed attacker that police departments across the US are starting to invest in training their officers and have even found evidence of measurable improvements to the outcomes of interactions for both officers and suspects.
