Tony Tovar was not having it that night.
A man walked into Behrmann's Tavern, a longtime St. Louis watering hole, just after midnight on Aug. 28 and, waving what KSDK in St. Louis described as a heavily modified pistol, demanded cash and belongings from the bartender and several patrons. Tovar was one of those patrons.
Dustin Krueger, the bartender on duty that early morning, told KMOV the gunman ordered everyone to the ground.
"My biggest concern was for the people that were sitting there," Krueger said.
Credit: Google
Credit: Google
Surveillance footage from inside the bar shows patrons dropping to the ground -- except for one. The footage shows the gunman, later identified by police as Kevin Moore, demanding property from those in the bar, going so far as to push the barrel of his gun into one man’s back.
Then he tries to grab Tovar’s phone off the bar. Tovar pushes the man away, despite the gun in his hand.
"I said, 'Not another punk trying to pull a punk move,'" Tovar, a regular at Behrmann's, told KSDK. "I'm so tired of people in south city trying to muscle their way in with firearms or bad attitude or some kind of aggression. I wasn't gonna comply."
Watch the footage of the robbery below, courtesy of Behrmann's Tavern and KSDK.
Tovar sits casually at the bar as the gunman moves around behind it in search of cash. At one point, Tovar lights a cigarette.
"I wasn't really concerned," Tovar told the news station. "I just had a really good feeling he wasn't out to harm anybody. He just wanted drug money."
KMOV reported that the gunman forced Krueger, who was on the ground with his patrons, to open the register. Once the man had pilfered the cash from the drawer, he fled.
No one was injured in the robbery.
St. Louis police officials said a total of six people were robbed at the bar, KMOV reported.
Moore, 37, of St. Louis, has been charged with four counts of first-degree robbery and four counts of armed criminal action, police officials said. He is being held without bond.
Tovar told KSDK he would not recommend that others resist a robber's demands. He does not regret his actions, though.
“Absolutely not,” he told the news station.
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