Who is Iris Bond Gill? BRAVE woman dares armed robber to SHOOT HER after he demands her car keys
WASHINGTON DC: In a rare show of bravery, a woman stood her ground against an armed car thief, refusing to give in to his threats. Security footage captured the moment when Iris Bond Gill sternly said "No!" to an armed robber who demanded her car keys on August 23, at around three in the afternoon.
Instead, Gill dared the hooded robber to shoot her, looking him right in the eye. After the gunman departed the area without shooting at her, Gill spoke to WTTG-TV about her terrifying experience. It was just after 3.20 pm on that day when Gill parked her car and got out to check her handbag while waiting on 10th Street NE. Suddenly, the armed car thief appeared in front of her, surprising her. The woman shrieked, threw her black bag and scarlet purse to the ground, and raised her hands. However, Gill abruptly changed her tone, yelling "What the f***!" and charged at the shooter.
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She told WTTG-TV that the thief threatened to kill her and demanded she hand him her car keys. "I'll shoot you," the criminal allegedly said while threatening her. In the video, Gill can be seen staring down the criminal before firmly yelling "No!" to him and daring him to shoot her. As soon as Gill shouted at the gunman, the culprit backed off and prepared to flee. Then, when Gill recoils for a second, he approached her once again and lifted his weapon in the air to aim at her. But Gill ultimately prevailed in the confrontation, and the criminal fled. According to D.C police, no arrests have been made yet.
In the interview with WTTG, Bon Gill said, "I’ve seen the video, and to be honest, I saw a young man in front of me [like] a lot of young people I’ve worked with over the years. And in some way, I think I went into almost a chastising mode with him as well." She clarified to the station that she was not urging other people to respond in the same manner that she did. She also merely highlighted that it was her instinctive response and that she thinks that people should follow their own instincts in situations like this.
"You know, it’s really complicated to think about now. I don’t exactly remember, but I know – I knew I was in danger. And so I just threw off my bag and just prepared to be confrontational," she further said. When WTTG questioned Bond Gill about what she hoped others would learn from her terrifying experience, she responded, "We need stronger communities. You see the suspect back away when a car comes, but no one stopped to help or was really able to intervene."
"I think there’s power in community in many ways, and I think one, you know, we can advocate for more lights and more cameras and certainly community policing is a part of that and boots on the ground. But it was actually a camera in someone’s house. And it was a car that drove by, that was not driven by anyone official — but just an individual that sort of scared him off. Gone are the days of having older neighbors that sat on the porch all day and watched and waved to you when you got home from work. I think in some ways, trying to think about how to preserve this intergenerational neighborhood is so valuable. We’ve lost so much of that in the city with massive displacement. So, I think just having more people around that know each other and that support each other would be really helpful, "she concluded.