Video shows unarmed guard blocking gunman from entering Buffalo treatment clinic
A man with an AR-15 rifle was stopped by a security guard after entering a substance abuse treatment clinic in Buffalo, New York, and the situation was caught on video.
The suspected gunman, identified as Jeffery Griffin, 48, according to CBS affiliate WIVB, entered the lobby of Alba de Vida on Thursday and fired one shot into the wall before an unarmed security guard tackled and restrained him until officers arrived. The incident was recorded by surveillance cameras, and footage has now been released by the Buffalo Police Department.
No one was injured, police said.
A video clip spanning roughly 30 seconds shows the unarmed guard standing in the vestibule of Alba de Vida, opposite a reception desk and in front of a closed glass door that looks like it leads to a waiting area for patients. The gunman approaches the vestibule through the front entrance and fires one shot into the wall, before the security guard hands something off to an employee behind the desk and proceeds to forcibly restrain the gunman while other staff and patients disappear from view.
The security guard pins the gunman to the ground as another guard arrives just before the surveillance footage cuts out. As the guards struggled to restrain to gunman, his gun discharged two additional times, according to the Buffalo Police Department, but no one was struck inside the clinic.
"This could've gotten ugly really quick," said Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, WIVB reported. "Due to the quick action — quite frankly heroic in my opinion — by the two security officers, no one got hurt there."
Police confirmed that Griffin was taken into custody in a statement last week. They suspect that he as also involved in another shooting that occurred at the 100 block of Pennsylvania Street, less than two miles away from the clinic, just before the one at Alba de Vida. Detectives say a woman was shot in the leg while inside her residence and transported to a nearby hospital for injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
A second suspect who police allege was also involved in the first shooting has been arrested. Police said they do not believe that either attack was planned, and both appeared to be attempted robberies "tied to drug activity."