Posted on 12/07/2014 10:44:33 AM PST by beaversmom
When a man with a gun walked into the St. Paul bar where Eric Wasson was working as a security guard, it flashed through Wasson's mind that his mother shouldn't lose a second son.
Wasson's brother was fatally shot in 2009.
"If I got killed out here, if I got hurt, what about my mama?" Wasson said. "When it boils down, my mama don't deserve that."
Wasson took action. When talking to the gunman didn't work, the former high school and college football player rushed him. The gun went off twice as they struggled and Wasson disarmed him. No one was injured.
Hardly anyone knew Wasson's story until recently. He didn't tell his mother or his young children.
But last week, St. Paul's police chief honored Wasson, presenting him with the highest award he can give a citizen and praising Wasson as a hero.
Police released a short clip of the surveillance video from inside the bar, and the video and Wasson's story have been receiving a lot of attention online -- the clip was viewed more than 100,000 times on the Pioneer Press website, with most people visiting from Reddit.com. Wasson's story had been on the front page of the community-driven social news and entertainment site.
The Pioneer Press covered the award ceremony Wednesday, and recently revisited Wasson to hear more about his life and what happened that September night. Advertisement
Wasson, 43, said he and the other guards at Johnny Baby's on University Avenue were unarmed when the man with the gun walked through the door.
"Everybody keeps saying how calm I was in the video," said Wasson, of St. Paul. "You know, when you're from California, you've lived that life on the streets, you don't get excited about too much no more. I didn't have time to get excited. I had time to digest it was a pistol, I had time to digest it was brandished, I had time to digest that my coworker had ran. "
Wasson said he considered the crowded bar. He figured there were more than 150 people inside.
"Everybody that's in there, that's somebody father, that's somebody's daughter, somebody's mom," Wasson said. "People don't deserve to be hurt, scared, traumatized or any of the above while out enjoying themselves."
Police Chief Thomas Smith told Wasson at last week's award ceremony, "We don't know what that suspect may have done if he was allowed inside of the bar. ... You displayed a great amount of courage when you chose to disarm the suspect and protect the customers in the bar."
The police chief putting a medal around Wasson's neck was a lifetime away from where he once was.
Wasson is from Southern California. His mother was a banker, and he had two strong father figures in his life growing up -- his stepdad and his biological father, who both worked as engineers.
Wasson said he lettered all four years in football and wrestling at his high school in Indio, Calif. He was a linebacker at College of the Desert, a community college in Palm Desert, Calif., and was studying to be a mortician.
But then Wasson started selling drugs. "I was a drug dealer, gang member, college student, father, all those things at one time," he said.
Wasson said he went to prison twice for selling drugs -- in California more than 20 years ago and in Minnesota a decade ago.
"I had a mother, I had a father," Wasson said. Eric Wasson, left, is shown with his brother, Samuel Cotton Sr., who was fatally shot in California in 2009. (Courtesy photo) Eric Wasson, left, is shown with his brother, Samuel Cotton Sr., who was fatally shot in California in 2009. (Courtesy photo) "I wasn't oppressed, we wasn't in the ghetto, none of the above. I went to school. It's just that we make bad decisions sometimes. I had to learn to uplift myself, to do different, to do better."
In 2009, Wasson's brother, Samuel Cotton Sr., was shot to death in Desert Hot Springs, Calif. He was 34.
"My brother had never been to jail, had a job, but due to my (expletive)-up living, my little brother started selling drugs," Wasson said. "My brother wasn't a street thug. He was a little too nice for the dope game. When they tried to rob my brother ... they shot him in the back, killed him."
Wasson hadn't told his mother what happened at Johnny Baby's in September because he hadn't wanted to worry her, but now she has seen the video and heard about what happened. Jamillo Donte Spight is accused of bringing a gun into Johnny Baby’s on University Avenue in St. Paul in September 2013. Eric Wasson, a security Jamillo Donte Spight is accused of bringing a gun into Johnny Baby's on University Avenue in St. Paul in September 2013. Eric Wasson, a security guard at the bar, was honored for disarming him. (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff's Office)
"I'm so proud of Eric that he changed and he's becoming the man that I reared him up to be," said Willie Fay Cotton, Wasson's mother. "But I still worry about my children. It's a cruel world out there."
Wasson has six children, ages 4 to 25. He said he changed his life for them and for his mother.
"I refuse to allow my past to define who I am today," Wasson said. "That's why I appreciate the opportunity to give back, I appreciate the opportunity to show my children something different. "
Wasson moved back to California in June 2011 to be closer to his mom when his stepfather died. There was a custody agreement involving his two youngest children, now ages 4 and 9, but he wanted to be in their lives more. So Wasson returned to Minnesota in May 2012, where he doesn't have other family, to share custody of the two children with their mother.
Smith told the children during the ceremony, "Be very proud of your daddy because he is setting a standard that fathers should set and he did a great job."
Hardly anyone knew Wasson's real name before he got the award. Everyone calls him "Biggz."
After the story came out, people texted him, "Is that you, Biggz? I know that's you!" They told Wasson, who doesn't have a Facebook account or spend much time online, "You're literally all over the Internet."
Wasson got his nickname because he is 6 feet, 1 inch tall and 295 pounds. He bench-presses 425 pounds, does cardio and cross fit workouts and participates in karate with his kids.
"It's a survival instinct," Wasson said. "I refuse to let my employer down."
Wasson has done all kinds of work, including operating a forklift at a warehouse most recently, and said he held second or third jobs for years doing security at night. He's now working as a security guard at a handful of restaurants and bars in the Twin Cities and said he'll be starting at St. Paul College later in the year to become a machinist.
Wasson had been working at Johnny Baby's for more than a year when he fought Sept. 21 with the gunman, identified in federal court documents as Jamillo Donte Spight, now 31.
Spight had been in the bar earlier. "Based on a customer's complaint or concern," Wasson approached and talked to Spight, who left, according to the judge's ruling convicting Spight of possession of a firearm by an ineligible person (Spight is a convicted felon).
Spight returned to the bar more than an hour later, holding a gun when he walked in, Wasson said.
While people commenting on the article have praised Wasson's actions, others have been critical of another security guard seen on the video running away.
The guard, Annikki Davis, said she was trying to get away from the gun.
"I thought we were all going to die," she said. "All I could think about was my kid. All I could think about was, 'I don't want to die.' I told everybody, 'Get down!' "
Davis agrees that Wasson was a hero.
"He did something really brave and I appreciate him for it," she said. Davis, 31, said she doesn't care what people say about her reaction of running away.
"I would ask people if they thought what I did was wrong, what would they do in the same situation?"
After Wasson got the gun from Spight, a crowd had gathered, people were incensed, and someone hit the gunman, Wasson said.
"They had suggestions from, 'Shoot him with his own gun' to 'Let's stomp him out before the police even get here,' " Wasson said. "If you justify being barbaric, we should go back to caveman days. We can't be lawless."
Wasson picked the gunman up and carried him into an office at the bar to hold him until police arrived.
The attention the story and video have received are overwhelming to Wasson. While the praise has been nice, he said, it all comes back to his kids.
"I came back to Minnesota to be a father, so I have to conduct myself a certain way," Wasson said. "All you have with your children is what you lead by example. ... I appreciate the award and everything, it's cool, but I'd do it again if God blessed me with the opportunity to survive it."
C.J. Sinner contributed to this report. Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262. Follow her at twitter.com/MaraGottfried.
Back in the day, when I watched the t.v. show, "Hard Core Pawn", Les was interviewing potential security guards. A big bruiser of a white guy was applying for the job.
Les told him, "I have no doubts that you could handle any trouble making men that might come in here but how would you handle a 5 foot tall 90 pound 50 year old woman trouble maker"?
If I remember correctly, he must have had the right answer because he got the job.
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