A 19-year-old restaurant worker’s martial arts training proved crucial when he was attacked by a stranger while taking out garbage at his workplace in downtown Minneapolis. Sheldon, who has worked at the Lotus restaurant since age 16, found himself in a terrifying confrontation that was captured on nearby surveillance video.
The unprovoked incident began with verbal harassment when the attacker confronted Sheldon, saying
“what are you doing here, suburb boy.”
The situation quickly escalated as bystanders watched the confrontation unfold.
“There was a lady watching. She watched everything happen and he looks at the lady and he goes, watch what I’m about to do to this B word. And then that’s when he starts pushing me up against the window. And then that’s when it turned into self-defense,”
Sheldon recounted.
Drawing on his background in jiu-jitsu and high school wrestling, Sheldon defended himself against his much larger attacker.
“Every time I would pick him up and have him in the air, he was, what, like six two. So he, you know, he has a lot of room. He would latch onto my shoulder while I was taking him down and every time I had him on the ground, he would bite my chest,”
Sheldon explained.
The incident left Sheldon with six bite wounds across his shoulder, back and arm.
“He got his whole mouth on. He got his whole mouth on there. Yeah. Brazilian jiu jitsu. The guy, you know, bit off more than he can chew,”
he said, demonstrating the severity of the injuries.
Although bystanders eventually intervened to pull the attacker away, the man continued to pursue Sheldon even after attempting to leave the scene.
Lotus co-owner Yoon Nguyen, whose family has operated the restaurant since 1984, expressed concern about deteriorating safety conditions in the neighborhood.
“I think safety is a huge issue here in Minneapolis. People don’t tend to come out anymore to go dine out to go eat because they don’t feel safe. I mean, I think that’s the biggest thing,”
Nguyen said.
While calling for increased police patrols, Nguyen acknowledged the challenges facing law enforcement.
“They need more help. The guys are just short staffed and there’s only so much they can do,”
he noted.
Nguyen believes community involvement is essential for improving safety, stating
“I’ve always believed if more people came out more people from the neighborhood it tends to shoo away the bad people.”
Police are currently searching for the attacker who remains at large. For Sheldon, who considers his workplace family after knowing them since age 13, the incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of self-defense training in an increasingly unpredictable urban environment.
