A heroic shopkeeper and her brother who were held at gunpoint in a terrifying armed robbery in Hull in March this year have been nominated for UK’s prestigious bravery award.
Retailer Vijitha Jeyathevan, 32, and her brother Thaya Karan have been shortlisted in the last ten for the Amplifon Awards for Brave Britons 2022 Act of Courage category as they held off armed robbers and defended themselves in 10-minute long terrifying attack on their convenience store, Hull Live reported.
When two teenage boys attacked Goddard Convenience Store in west Hull, Jeyathevan and Karan defended themselves until police arrived despite the latter receiving a wound to the head. The terrifying attack lasted for 10 minutes before armed police descended on the shop in Goddard Avenue.
Two 14-year-old boys were arrested, one at the scene and another a short distance away after he handed himself in, but later released on conditional bail.
“I heard shouts of help from my brother, who had been on the shop floor and threatened with a gun and forced to hand cigarettes to one of the attackers,” reports quoted Jeyathevan as saying.
“I came from upstairs with some metal bar in defence and saw my brother stood there with his head bleeding and his hands up in the air with a gun pointed at his head, and I thought at first that he had been shot already because of all the blood.”
“Then out of nowhere another man came at me with a knife and tried to stab me in the stomach and then the chest. I felt so scared for myself and for my brother and my young daughter and a baby downstairs and really thought we might die.
“I finally managed to get the knife off one of the men and he ran out, so I locked the door and then we all started grappling for the gun and managed to get that off the man that was still inside and called for the police.
“It was absolutely terrifying – it lasted for around 10 minutes in all but it felt like hours and the man with the gun had me by the neck at one point before we managed to get the gun off him.”
Jeyathevan was physically unharmed in the attack, but her brother required stitches on head injury. Goddard Convenience Store had been run by the Jeyathevan family for three years prior to the attack and the day after the armed robbery, Jeyathevan re-opened the store again, stated the report.
Four finalists will be selected in each category and the winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 11.
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