Man Attacks Applebee's Staff with Knife, But Then a Gun-Wielding Customer Draws His Weapon: Police
In New Hartford, New York, a good guy with a gun managed to save Applebee’s staff from a bad guy with a knife.
According to WSTM-TV in Syracuse, the incident occurred Saturday in the Utica-area restaurant after a patron was asked to leave.
Esteban F. Padron had been told to leave the restaurant on another occasion due to disorderly conduct.
When staff recognized him, they told him to get out. However, as he was being escorted off the premises, Padron reportedly decided to fight back.
After attacking one staff member, Padron got behind the bar and grabbed a steak knife.
The fight continued, and another staff member was slashed in the face with the knife Padron was swinging.
However, common sense wasn’t able to get it into Padron’s head that this wasn’t exactly the best idea. Instead, it was another Applebee’s diner — who just happened to be a licensed handgun carrier.
WSTM reported the diner “intervened by drawing his handgun and giving Padron commands to stay on the ground and let go of the knife.”
Not unwisely, Padron let go of the knife and remained on the ground until police arrived and arrested him.
He was charged with two counts of assault, one count of attempted assault and one count of criminal possession of a weapon. Under New York law, he was transferred to a local hospital to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Neither injury sustained by the Applebee’s staff members, meanwhile, were life-threatening.
Utica man arrested for assaulting Applebee’s staff with knifehttps://t.co/HO8HiUswR8
— NewsChannel 9 (@NewsChannel9) January 15, 2023
WSYR-TV reported that additional charges might be filed against Padron and additional witnesses are being sought.
It’s worth remembering that, until the Supreme Court struck it down, New York had one of the strictest concealed carry laws in the nation, requiring an individual to show “proper cause” in order to carry a handgun outside the home.
“We reiterate that the standard for applying the Second Amendment is as follows: When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” wrote Justice Clarence Thomas in a 6-3 decision handed down last summer.
At the time, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul was livid.
It is outrageous that at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence, the Supreme Court has recklessly struck down a New York law that limits those who can carry concealed weapons.
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) June 23, 2022
“It is outrageous that at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence, the Supreme Court has recklessly struck down a New York law that limits those who can carry concealed weapons,” Hochul tweeted.
Let’s see Gov. Hochul speak those words to the faces of the Applebee’s workers whose lives may have been saved by a concealed carrier. Let’s see her say them to the faces of their family members. Heck, let’s do it at a media briefing for all the world to see.
For whatever reason, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Shame, really.
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