Two Dallas Water Utilities employees are being recognized for their heroic actions after catching a suspected robber who attacked a woman at an ATM.
Anthony Mendoza and Douglas Carter were awarded the Citizen's Certificate of Merit by the Dallas Police Department on Friday.
According to Dallas police, the pair helped stop a suspected robber attacking a woman at the Chase Bank ATM drive-thru in the 2800 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard last Friday.
Police said the suspect smashed the woman's passenger window with a brick and used a knife to slash her purse strap. The woman and suspect began wrestling over the purse. That's when the two water utility employees ran to help.
"They heard the screams, they heard the call for help," said Deputy Police Chief Paul Stokes. "Mr. Carter took off on foot. He was out to get [the suspect]. Mr. Mendoza says, 'I'll get in the chase car,' and they got in his car and they pursued the suspect."
According to police the two recruited the help of nearby citizens, Beeny Patterson and Willie Williams, and they chased down the suspect, cornering him in nearby apartments and pulling him off a fence as he tried to climb over. The pair knocked the knife out of the man's hands and subdued him until police arrived to arrest him.
NBC 5's Holley Ford contributed to this report.
