On Wednesday evening — the same day as his 28th birthday — Jonathan Long stopped a robbery.
Long, working at a nearby Shell gas station, said he saw 54-year-old Otha Brown punch a woman in the head at least four times at the corner of 34th Street and Archer Road.
When nobody intervened, Long closed his station and walked to the corner, where he tried to separate Brown and the woman.
After a brief struggle, Long channeled his 16 years of martial arts training and brought Brown to the ground with a leg sweep.
“I am a very nice person,” Long said. “That’s why I didn’t hurt him.”
Gainesville Police soon responded to calls about a man reportedly attacking a woman and reaching into her purse.
The woman was gone when officers arrived, so the incident was labeled as a disturbance, Sgt. John Nabet said. Without a victim, Brown was not arrested.
“During all the confusion, our female...decided she did not feel like being the victim and got into a car and disappeared,” he said.
Brown said money led to the struggle.
He said his frustration started at the Archer Road Wal-Mart when she tried to take his M&M’s candy, he said.
Brown said he then gave her $10 for cigarettes, but decided to get the money back.
At the crosswalk, Brown held Long’s name tag, ripped from Long’s shirt during the scuffle. A bloody towel lay on the ground below his scuffed shin.
“Well, he shouldn’t have put his hands on that girl,” Long said. “That’s his fault.”
Since 2008, Brown has been found guilty on three counts of disorderly conduct, three counts of resisting an officer, and four counts of battery, according to Alachua County court records.
As police began to leave, Brown asked Nabet if he could use the Shell station, and Nabet advised he use one further down the road.
“No more mischief tonight,” he said.
Contact Giuseppe Sabella at gsabella@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Gsabella
