This is the shocking moment a hardworking fish and chips takeaway owner took down an armed gunman in his shop in Ayr.
Brave Ali Cobanoglu, 61, from The Lucky Star, on Ayr’s George Street, made a citizen’s arrest against David Gormanley, 58, who was attempting to rob his shop with an imitation firearm back in February.
Ali and wife-of-18-years, Havva, came face-to-face with Gormanley as the duo were closing up for the evening, with quick-thinking Ali throwing the ‘armed’ thug to the ground, holding him down while a terrified Havva, 41, ran outside shouting for help.
Gormanley, from Cumnock, admitted assaulting Ali by brandishing an imitation firearm towards him and demanding money with intent to rob him.
He also admitted possession of the weapon with intent to cause Ali and Havva to believe that unlawful violence would be used against them.
Gormanley was sentenced to four years behind bars at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday.
But Ali admits he is “disappointed” in the sentencing outcome and thinks Gormanley “should have got longer”.
Ayrshire Live’s exclusive footage shows Ali, dressed in his chef whites with one shoe kicked off in the commotion, holding down Gormanley while another witness can be heard on the phone to 999 asking for the police to come and arrest the attempted thief.
Courageous Ali can be heard saying to Gormanley “It was a good try, son, it was a good try.”
Dad-of-two Ali has now spoken out about Gormanley’s four-year jail term.
“I’m really disappointed,” he said.
“I think he should have got longer.
“You’re playing with somebody’s life — okay nothing happened — but it could have happened.
“He only got four years — that’s not going to stop anybody.
“He’s already been in for almost a year, and he’ll probably get out in seven months or a year's time.
Ali said he was also disappointed that nobody from the police, council or local politicians followed up after the incident to ask how he and his family were doing.
He said: “Everybody knew it happened and could have asked ‘how are that family? How are they coping?’
“But nobody from the council or the police came to ask how we were.
“A policeman at the time said ‘you deserve a medal, you’re a brave man’ — yeah I was a brave man but nobody came to see me afterwards to see how we were.
“My wife is trying to forget about it but it’s not something you can just clear out of your mind.
“She said to me that when the guy was holding the gun she was thinking ‘if something happens to both of us, who’s going to look after our kids?’
“But we got really good support from the customers; people coming in to ask how we were.”
Ali recalled the harrowing moment Gormanley entered the shop with the imitation weapon and demanded money.
He said: “I told him to cool down. He said ‘just f****** empty the till’.
“I could see he wasn’t going to cool down so I moved to the till and he was still pointing the gun towards me.
“My wife said ‘Ali for goodness sake just give him the money’, and when she said that he looked over at her and that’s when I grabbed him down so he couldn’t move.
“I was shaking. For 20 seconds you just don’t think about anything else.”
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