Off-Duty Police Officers Pause Date To Foil Armed Robber
Two off-duty police officers stopped an armed robbery while they were on a date night at a restaurant chain in Kentucky.
Elizabethtown police officers Chase and Nicole McKeown have been married for six-months and visited a Raising Cane’s restaurant in Lousiville, Kentucky, for their date night.
“At our church, we’ve been focusing on marriage,” Chase McKeown told WDRB. Part of that focus was an emphasis on a weekly “date night.”
While they were enjoying their meal and each other’s company, a man — later identified as 30-year-old Justin Carter — walked into the restaurant wearing a mask.
Nicole McKeown said that they saw the man at the same time, but her first thought was that Carter was wearing a mask because it is flu season and he might have been sick.
According to the police report, Carter then pointed a gun at the cashier and demanded money.
Surveillance video shows the duo draw their guns and rush to confront Carter, pursuing him for a few blocks before Lousiville Metro Police Department officers arrived.
“We’re trained for those kinds of situations,” Nicole McKeown told WAVE. “And when it comes to those people’s lives being in danger, I feel like any other officer here would have done the exact same thing.”
Chase McKeown added that it was a good exercise in trust and teamwork as a married couple.
“In marriage, we’ve got each other,” he said. “We’re going to talk things out, we’re going to deal with whatever comes at us, we’ve had a lot we’ve dealt with in the last six months.
“It’s just another, like she said, another layer of trust that adds to and shows that I don’t have to worry about making sure she’s OK. She doesn’t have to worry about making sure I’m OK. We just take care of it.”
LMPD Detective Dan Mason praised the officers and said they acted “honorably and heroically,” WDRB reported.
A representative of Raising Cane’s also thanked the officers for their actions.
“We are extremely blessed that they chose to dine with us,” the spokeswoman said. “It’s because of good people like Chase and Nicole who give us good hope for tomorrow … we’ll never be able to thank them enough.”
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