‘I Need To Stop Him’: Osage County Gas Station Manager, Employee, Customer Tackle Armed Robbery Suspect

Osage County Deputies say a man is in custody Thursday night after flashing a gun at a Sand Springs gas station manager then trying to rob him.

Deputies say that the manager, another employee, and a customer all stepped in to stop Jacob Hatfield.

Rahman Mahfugar, the store owner, says he’s been in the gas station business for 25 years- and this is the first time this has happened to him.

He says what made it even stranger, is that the suspect has come to the store for years.

Mahfugar owns Big Al's, a gas station in Osage County between Prue and Sand Springs.

He says Jacob Hatfield, a man who's been coming to his store for ten years, came in Thursday with a mask on and tried to get money from the register and car keys.

“I told him like, this is not funny," said Mahfugar. "It’s not joke. This is a business place. Don’t do that again.

He says he’s given free drinks to Hatfield in the past and paid him to do work around the store.

He says after an employee gave Hatfield the money from the register, Mahfugar went around the side to catch him.

“I need to stop him," said Mahfugar. "Because all this money, all this sale, he was taking out. I cannot do that. I know that guy! And I know that he walk! He’s a bum. He cannot go far. He was asking even car key. Give me all this money and the car keys.”

That’s when security footage shows Rahman, an employee, and a customer taking Hatfield to the ground.

“When he saw I’m coming, he pulled a gun on me, like this," said Mahfugar. "And I didn’t care. What he gonna do? Shoot me right? So I didn’t care. I still was still trying to get his neck.”

He says he is still trying to comprehend what happened, but that he says he’s proud of everyone, especially his employees, for the way they handled the situation.

“See how long I hold him?" Said Mahfugar. "I hold him until the fire department came with their gun.” 

Mahfugar says Hatfield told him he did it because he wanted to go to jail.

Hatfield was booked into Osage County jail Thursday.