CHICK-FIL-A WORKER STOPS ATTEMPTED ARMED CARJACKING
A Florida Chick-fil-A worker sprang into action on September 14, 2022, when he heard a woman screaming for help outside. Thomas “Mykel” Gordon, 26, rushed into the parking lot and tackled a man who had ripped the woman’s keys from her waistband while she was getting her infant out of the car.
According to The Guardian, the mother was standing by her vehicle outside the Okaloosa County restaurant when a man carrying a sharpened plank approached her. He demanded her keys, snatched them, and climbed into the driver’s seat.
Gordon was in the middle of an order when he heard the commotion. “I was in the middle of an order, and I hear a call from the other side of the store all the way over there,” Gordon told Channel 3, according to WLOS. “I was like – I got to help somebody. I got to help.”
He sprinted outside and grappled with the man, who authorities identified as 43-year-old William Branch of DeFuniak Springs, Florida, according to CBS News.
A bystander filmed the chaotic scene on their cellphone. The footage showed Gordon taking Branch down to the pavement, rolling around with him, and eventually putting him in a headlock.
During the struggle, Branch punched Gordon in the face, though the employee was not seriously injured. As Gordon held the man down, a woman holding her baby in one arm waved for assistance with the other, screaming, “Somebody help!”
Co-workers and a customer ran out of the restaurant in Fort Walton Beach to back Gordon up. As one employee pulled out a phone to dial the police, another woman walked up and shouted at the scene, “She had a baby in her hand! How dare you? How dare you scare her like that?”
A history of helping
When Okaloosa County deputies arrived, they arrested Branch. He was booked on charges of battery and carjacking with a weapon.
Authorities also booked him in connection with another carjacking attempt involving a different woman’s vehicle. That incident was reported about 10 minutes prior to the confrontation with the mother and infant, according to WSLS.
The sheriff’s office shared the video of the incident online and called Gordon “one incredible individual.” The video was provided to investigators to use as evidence in their case against Branch.
The restaurant’s affiliated Facebook page also published a post praising Gordon for stepping in. “At Chick-fil-A, our mission is to ‘serve’,” the post read. “Mykel took it further … to ‘save’.”
This was not the first time Gordon stepped in during a life-threatening emergency at his workplace. In September 2018, Gordon was taking drive-up orders when a trucker failed to negotiate a nearby turn. The truck’s crane rolled onto a car carrying two 17-year-old girls.
Gordon ran to the crushed vehicle and pulled one of the girls from the ground to safety. She told him her friend was still inside and alive. Gordon saw the second teenager struggling to crawl out of a small opening on the passenger side.
Realizing he could not reach her, he ran back inside the restaurant to grab ice and towels to comfort her. A group of passersby, including a former firefighter, eventually forced open a destroyed car door so the second girl could wiggle free.
On September 15, 2022, Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden visited the Chick-fil-A to personally recognize Gordon. He presented the employee with a Community Service Award and a ceremonial coin during a small ceremony outside the restaurant.
“Thank you very much, guys – I will take this, I got to put this in some very safe place,” Gordon said as he held his framed certificate. “If you hear a call for help, know I’ll be there first.”
