A former high school wrestler put his old techniques to use when he saved a Subway employee from being attacked by an enraged customer.
Gabriel Pitzulo tackled the assailant and held him down until cops arrived after walking into the Indianapolis restaurant on March 22 during his lunch break.
“It was just another normal day at work, I was going to my local Subway where I go all the time,” Pitzulo told “Fox & Friends First” Thursday.
“As I walk in, it was pretty hectic. People yelling, it was kind of loud.”
The vexed customer — identified by police as Daniel Saunders — allegedly threw something at the female employee and spit on her in front of a crowd of other bystanders.
Dramatic surveillance footage shows Pitzulo charging at the man, holding him down on the ground as other witnesses locked the doors and called police.
The attacker struggled to free himself from Pitzulo’s grasp, but the ex-athlete kept him pinned on the floor during the three minutes it took for police to arrive.
“It wasn’t cool,” Pitzulo said, adding there were “some words back and forth” between him and the suspect.
When they showed up, they even let Pitzulo handcuff the man he helped arrest.
“The cops got there. I helped him put the cuffs on, and they thanked me and told me what I did was very brave,” he told the show.
The former high school wrestler — whose father was also a professional cage fighter — works as a welder and said he hadn’t considered a career in law enforcement before he stopped the attack.
Pitzulo hopes he can be an inspiration to other young men to step in when they witness violence or a crime.
“I haven’t really been turning down interviews because I do want to get this out there for the young men. There’s a lot of talk nowadays of toxic masculinity, and I’m really trying to, you know, push this narrative that you should stand up for the people, innocent people, people in your local neighborhood. And, you know, that’s kind of what I take from it,” he said.
Saunders was charged with battery injury, battery resulting in bodily injury and disorderly conduct-fighting/tumultuous conduct, according to police records.
