A tradie has been hailed a ‘hero’ for tackling a knife-wielding man in the middle of a shopping centre who allegedly threatened to kill people.
Blake Towney, 26, told Daily Mail Australia he was shopping for his son Nate’s fourth birthday at Dubbo Centro, NSW, on Tuesday, when a crazed man produced a knife and began ranting.
Textbook rugby league tackle
As terrified shoppers watched on in disbelief, Blake and his father Darryl who were having lunch just metres away, decided to leap into action.
The 56-year-old dad picked up a highchair and approached the knifeman from the front, while Blake moved in from the side and flattened the man with a textbook rugby league tackle.
‘Out of nowhere the guy said ”I’m gonna stab someone”,’ Blake, who works at a copper miner in Nyngan, said.
‘I felt I had to do something in case an elderly person or child got harmed.’
Without saying a word the father and son stood up to face the danger.
Darryl, armed with the highchair, crept towards the man to see if he could talk him down.
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‘He walked right up to him and was asking him questions, ‘what’s going on?’ and ‘what’s the matter?’ Blake said.
Amid the standoff, six-foot-three Blake, still wearing his reflective work pants, quietly walked behind the knifeman and then moved in.
‘I ran at him as hard as he could, like I did on the footy field,’ the former second-rower for the Moruya Sharks on the NSW south coast said.
The tackle
‘I tackled him and made sure the knife fell out of his hand. When his hand hit the ground the knife came out.’
Blake said it was not his intention to hurt the man, who he figured may have been suffering from mental health issues.
‘He cracked his head pretty hard. I asked if he his head was okay and he said something in a foreign language.
‘Then my father and I kneeled on top of him and made the citizens’ arrest.’
Darryl Towney believes his son was protecting him as well as the community.
‘I’m pretty sure Blake has never been exposed to anything like that before and I seriously think that he was protecting me as I was in the guys face trying to distract him,’ he said.
