Dramatic CCTV vision shows the moment a father and son apprehended a knife-wielding man in a regional NSW shopping mall.
The video shows the man gripping the knife as he stands in the middle of the Dubbo Centro shopping centre in the state’s central west.
Father and son Darryl and Blake Towney quickly sprung into action when they saw the dangerous situation unfolding.
Speaking with 2GB radio station on Thursday morning, Darryl explained that he was having a coffee and a sandwich with his son when the man appeared.
“He just started yelling that he was going to stab somebody,” he said.
Surveillance video from the shopping centre shows the heroic efforts of the father and son to quickly defuse the situation.
Darryl approached the man from the front holing a high chair to his chest with the four legs pointing towards the alleged offender to shield himself from any potential injury.
“I just tried to talk to him, to try and calm him down and see what the issue was,” he said.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his son gearing up to charge towards the man, so he moved himself to keep the man’s attention focused forward on the high chair.
While the man was distracted, Blake ran up behind him and crash tackled him to the floor.
“Bingo, the big fella hit him,” Darryl said of the moment.
He said he resorted to the extreme measure because he was concerned about a rush of school kids heading into the centre at the end of the school day.
“I reckon in about 10 minutes, the mall would have been full of school kids around the 3.30 mark,” he said.
“I was a bit concerned for the old man just in case he lashed out and started to go at my father.
“I thought it would be the quickest way to dissolve the situation, so that’s when I came in with the left shoulder and tackled him to the ground.”
Blake said he was a “bit concerned” he might have split the man’s head open after the knifeman landed headfirst on the polished concrete floor.
Blake put the well-executed tackle down to years of practice and paid credit to his “old man” for first teaching him the move.
“I was just amazed with the commitment he showed to bring that lad down,” his father said.