DC Metro Employees Subdue Man With Loaded Gun

WASHINGTON (WJZ) -- DC Metro employees are being praised for their heroic actions after they subdue a man carrying a loaded gun.

Jessica Kartalija has more on what happened on board the Green Line.

Thanks to their quick thinking, the Metro employees foiled what could have escalated into a deadly situation.

When Pamela Rhone got on the Metro, she wasn't expecting to come across a man armed with a gun. Before the station manager made it to her final stop, she and a coworker came face-to-face with Rondez Tibbs---a man Transit Police say committed a felony moments before.

"Our suspect in this case committed an armed robbery," said a police official.

Police say the gun he used was in his left pocket.

In a video, you can see Tibbs arguing with someone on the platform. Then the train arrives and you can see him take a seat---right in front of Rhone and her coworkers.

The argument he is in escalates as soon as the doors close. Two other guys came. Rhone and the other Metro workers stepped in, thinking they were robbing Tibbs.

"Two other guys came behind, had him in a chokehold," said Rhone.

Two guys left the train and Tibbs was still there.

"He admitted that he did have a gun," she said.

Rhone says her coworker touched Tibbs' pocket and felt the gun. In one video, you can see that employee on top of Tibbs. Rhone says her coworker moved the gun away and pinned Tibbs to the floor.

"He was trying to get away so we thought we better hold on to him," said Rhone. "We didn't know what would happen if he got away."

She called Transit Police and they arrested Tibbs when the train made it to Chinatown.

A spokesperson for Metro says this type of encounter is rare and the employees went well beyond what was expected.

Tibbs faces charges of armed robbery and carrying a pistol without a license.