Rioters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, reportedly broke an elderly man’s jaw when he tried to protect a mattress store they set on fire.
“He was trying to chase them off with a fire extinguisher,” said Pamela “Sue” Moniz, owner of The Mattress Shop.
Identified as 71-year-old Robert Cobb, the mattress store employee traveled to the shop Monday night after seeing videos of it on fire. He then reportedly grabbed a fire extinguisher and began spraying it towards the rioters.
“He sprayed them in the face so they had to take their masks off for identification,” Moniz said. “Someone pulled a gun, and another person yelled, ‘Don’t shoot this man. Don’t shoot this man.’”
Then, someone threw a water bottle filled with concrete at him, reportedly breaking his jaw.
“I absolutely cry every time I talk about it because this man did this for me,” said Moniz. “He did it because that is the kind of person he is. He is so giving, so selfless.”
Cobb is then seen in a video lying on the ground and bloody.
“Turn his head. … He’s drowning on his blood!” someone in a video of the scene is heard saying.
“He was trying to defend his building, and they beat the shit out of him!” the videographer is heard saying.
The man who attacked Cobb was caught on camera, but there’s no information if the suspect has been arrested.
Cobb is expected to survive his injuries.
Nights of rioting, looting, and shootings have unfolded in Kenosha since the police shooting of Jacob Blake on Sunday. Police officers shot Blake multiple times during an arrest when Blake reached into his SUV, where he reportedly had a knife. He is currently reportedly paralyzed from the waist down from the injuries.
