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- A restaurant owner said his years of martial arts training began when a man allegedly tried to kidnap a child from his restaurant.
- Dishal Sooku reacted seconds after the incident and knocked the man to the ground.
- He said he never thought he would do something like that.
“When I think about it now, Ishal Sooku, 38, a Johannesburg restaurant owner, is a lowly, soft-spoken man with a contagious laugh, but you can’t play with him.
This was made clear in a video of an alleged attempt to kidnap a child from Sooku’s * restaurant in Florida, Roodepoort, who was captured Thursday and has been taking social media by storm.
In the video, two women and a girl can be seen sitting at a table on the restaurant’s veranda. Suddenly, a man jumps over the railing and throws himself at the boy. One of the women tries to grab the boy from the man’s grasp as Sooku knocks him to the ground and holds him there with a heavy choke. The man is then handed over to the security officers.
Sooku told News24 that he and his father were sitting at a table on the terrace.
“My dad noticed a suspicious looking guy and told me to keep an eye on him.
Martial arts training started
“All of a sudden, he started running towards us and I saw him go straight for this kid. And that’s when I reacted.”
It wasn’t just sheer luck that he was on Sooku’s side.
“I have had many years of experience in martial arts, with jiu-jitsu being my main discipline. So it was years of training that started in that split second …
“You know, a lot of people have asked me how I reacted so quickly and how I knew what to do; even my wife asked me, ‘Did you plan this?’ …
“A big part of martial arts is that you learn to control the situation, and I think that’s what happened. I needed to control it so that I could let go of this boy – it was a combination of training and awareness and all that.”
Sooku said that the attacker was not armed, a detail that he could notice simply by studying his movements.
“When he jumped over the railing, he used both hands, for example, and when he attacked [the girl], there was no stabbing action when he held her. so I realized that he had no weapons. “
Sooku added that he had no idea why the attacker acted the way he did.
“When I fought with him, there were many oaths, but once the security guard and the police took over, I walked away. He didn’t tell me anything.”
Reflecting on the incident afterwards, Sooku said that he was almost surprised that he had acted the way he did.
‘How did I do that?’
“I watched the video again and I thought, how did I do that? All those thoughts go through your mind. But I guess at that moment, when I saw that girl, everything else just got over you.”
While Sooku had no further contact with the girl’s family, he said he hoped she was okay.
“I was very traumatized and shocked, obviously, I just hope and pray that she’s okay …”
Police spokesman Capt Kay Makhubele confirmed the incident on Friday.
According to Makhubele, the incident took place in a pizzeria on Thursday around 17:00.
“The complainant was in the [restaurant] with her 4-year-old son when an unknown male approached and grabbed the girl by the neck as if he wanted to take her away. The mother and child screamed and with the help of the store owner and the community, the suspect was arrested. “
The 24-year-old man appeared in Roodepoort Magistrates Court on one count of assault on Friday morning.
News24 is awaiting comment on the suspect from the National Tax Authority.
* Sooku requested that the name of his restaurant not be published.
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