Post by Focus on Feb 14, 2013 10:27:20 GMT
A shopkeeper who fought off two armed robbers said the streets around his inner city Birmingham store were 'more violent' than his native Iraq.
Kochar Rasul, 30, made a new life for himself and his family in Britain after fleeing from Kurdistan to escape Saddam Hussein's evil regime.
But he was forced to defend himself using a shop sign when two gunmen pounced as he locked up his shop in Handsworth, Birmingham, just before midnight on Monday.
Shopkeeper Kochar Rasul fended off armed robbers with a sign. He said the streets around his inner city Birmingham store were 'more violent' than his native Iraq
He told how he grabbed the sign and used it as a shield to fend off the robbers who pistol-whipped him and held a gun to his head.
The father-of-two said he was bending down to lock the front door of Nine Wines and Food Store when he was attacked.
'I looked up and two men were standing over me and one had a gun to my head,' said Mr Rasul.
'They started to hit me around the head with the gun but I managed to grab it off them and it fell to the floor.'
Mr Rasul said one of the robbers ran over and picked up the gun and walked back to him.
'He was coming towards me and I thought, oh no, he's going to shoot me this time,' he said. 'So I grabbed the nearest thing to hand which was the shop sign from next door.
Mr Rasul, 30, made a new life for himself and his family in Britain after fleeing from Kurdistan to escape Saddam Hussein's evil regime
Mr Kochar fended off armed robbers with this sign
'What else could I do? I had nothing else to use. I've got two kids and a wife and thought, how would they cope without me?
'So I picked up the sign and used it to shield myself and fight them off.'
Luckily for the shopkeeper, an armed response police car was passing at the time and officers came to his aid.
The robbers escaped with just Mr Rasul's carrier bag containing orange juice, a pizza and a packet of cigarettes.
Police arrested a 26-year-old man at gunpoint in a nearby alleyway on suspicion of robbery. A suspected firearm was also seized.
The man remained in custody last night, helping police with their inquiries.
Mr Rasul came to Britain in 2003 when the Kurds were being persecuted in their native Iraq.
'I thought it would be safe here, but it isn't, it's very dangerous with crime always going on and lots of bad people around,' he said.
'It's more dangerous here than Iraq because at least there, you knew who your enemies are.'
Detective Constanble Phil Langstone, from Force CID in Harborne, praised Mr Rasul's courage.
'The victim was very brave in his attempt to fight off the attackers and the fact that armed officers just happened to be passing at that particular moment was a case of being in the right place at the right time,' he said -- Well you know what you can do don't you sunshine ... fck off back to Iraq - Adios already!! - Fx 
