Puerto Rican security guard prevents mass shooting at Tampa club

Manny Resto probably saved many lives last weekend. Early Sunday morning, this Puerto Rican security guard confronted a masked man who tried to enter a famous strip club armed with a 9mm firearm in Tampa, Florida.

Surveillance camera footage shows Michael Rudman, a 44 years old with numerous priors for domestic violence, advancing towards the entrance of the club carrying a short gun and a flashlight in his hands. On Rudman's arm the words "kill" and "dark one" can be read. The man was wearing a red devil mask.

The moment Resto sees the gun, the security guard pounced on him to prevent him from entering the premises. After a struggle in which Resto manages to disarm the assailant, they manage to pin him to the ground. The assailant's weapon discharged during the struggle, thankfully though, the incident was resolved without injury.

According to the Tampa Police Department, which responded to the scene and arrested Rudman, the assailant was carrying several loaded magazines for the gun. Several knives were found in his vehicle, as well as a variety of ammunition. Rudman faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm, something he was prohibited from doing by court order.

The Tampa Police have refrained from assessing the assailant's motives, but everything seems to indicate that Rudman was preparing to commit a mass shooting on the premises, which at that time was crowded with customers. According to the Police Department, about 200 people were on the premises at the time. There was premeditation, as security cameras showed that Rudman had visited the same place the night before.

"I saw him raise his hand and he had a gun," Manny Resto explained at a Police Department press conference. "I saw him pointing toward the door, and I decided he wasn't going to go into the club and hurt anyone." Before working as a security guard, Resto was a professional wrestler under the nickname "Castigador Puertorriqueño." Both Resto and his co-workers were publicly thanked by the Tampa Police Department for their "heroism."

In 2016, Florida experienced a tragic episode of violence when a gunman entered a nightclub and triggered a mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of 49 people and 50 injuries.