A store clerk in St. Paul wasn't about to be robbed without a fight.
Hakim Benyahia works the counter at the Ave. Grocery on Selby Avenue, never thinking one of his best sellers could help save his life.
The store's surveillance camera captured closing time on June 8. As Hakim was locking up, one final, unwelcome customer forced himself in.
He had a mask and a gun.
"I thought he was going to kill me. No way. That's why I go to his gun," said Benyahia.
And so began the struggle over the gun with close quarters in narrow aisles. The surveillance video shows Benyahia fighting back and he knew how.
This grocery store clerk was once a bodyguard at the United States Embassy in his native Algeria, trained to take a bullet, but not from this suspect.
"I was scared. Very scared," Benyahia said.
In what became the fight of his life, Benyahia grabbed something he knew might help, the hardest item on the shelf — a metal can of tuna.
In the video, you can see Benyahia hit the would-be robber on the head, just enough to shake him. The struggle continues, and the man assaults Benyahia, who thought only about getting that gun so he could get home that night to his 6-year-old son.
Now healed from his injuries, Benyahia hopes this doesn't happen to anyone else. If it was money the robber wanted, Benyahia says he would have gladly given it to him without violence.
"If he ask ... for money, I help him with money. Believe me. I help him," Benyahia said.
The suspect eventually ran away. Police are hoping someone saw him or recognizes him from the video. Benyahia managed to get the man's mask off.
