‘You call that a knife?’ Robber gets chased off by machete-wielding store clerk
Naif Qatamin might be the Crocodile Dundee of Tacoma. The 70-year-old owns Selena One Market on Tacoma’s Hilltop, where he fended off an alleged robbery attempt with a blade much bigger than the robber’s.
On Feb. 5, a man entered Qatamin’s store on South Yakima Ave. and allegedly threatened him with a knife, according to the Tacoma Police Department.
“This is a holdup,” Qatamin told The News Tribune on Saturday, repeating the man’s words. “This is a robbery, you understand?”
“I said, ‘With that knife?’,” he recalled.
Video posted Saturday on department social media shows the scene playing out. After Qatamin closes the till, he pulls a machete out from behind the counter and swings it at the suspect.
“This is what they call a knife,” Qatamin told the suspect.
Machetes are long, wide blades often used in agriculture or as weapons.
“I just wanted to scare him,” Qatamin said Saturday. “I didn’t want to hurt him.”
The suspect backed up and then fell on the ground, Qatamin said. As Qatamin held him down with one foot, his wife rushed out from a back room.
“My wife was more worried about him,” Qatamin said. Eventually, the suspect got up and fled.
Using the video and witness descriptions, police were able to identify the suspect.
The next day, the suspect returned to the store, stood in the entrance and threatened Qatamin. He called police again. The suspect was arrested and booked in to the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of felony harassment and robbery in the first degree.
This story was originally published February 10, 2024 at 1:59 PM.
