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When Manny Resto saw a man in a devil mask approaching the Tampa strip club where he worked on Sunday, the security guard thought a friend was pulling a prank on him.

His first impression quickly disintegrated. The masked man opened the entrance door and flashed a pistol in his right hand. Resto, a former professional wrestler, grabbed the man’s hand in an attempt to take the gun.

“I was in a fight for my life,” Resto said.

Over the next 25 seconds, Resto and fellow security guards disarmed the man and tackled him to the ground before police arrived. Lee Bercaw, interim chief of the Tampa Police Department, believes the guards prevented a mass killing at the club, Mons Venus.

“I have no doubt that had they not stepped in, many lives would have been lost,” Bercaw said at a news conference Tuesday.

🚨𝐓𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚 𝐏𝐃 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐛
READ: https://t.co/yAafAWKx02
Michael Rudman, 44, arrived @ Mons Venus wearing a devil mask w/ "Kill" and "Darkk One" written on his arms pic.twitter.com/rlwH6r2i2t

Police identified the masked man as 44-year-old Michael Rudman and charged him with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, battery, and possessing a firearm while under a risk protection order. Bercaw said Rudman, who remains in jail, could face more charges.

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Julianne Holt, Hillsborough County’s public defender, declined to comment when reached by The Washington Post.

At the news conference Tuesday, Resto described his experience. Around 1:10 a.m. Sunday, the suspect drove a silver Toyota pickup truck into Mons Venus’s parking lot, where Resto said it was blocking other vehicles. The man exited his truck wearing a red-and-black devil mask, with the words “kill” and “darkk one” on his arms, police said.

Resto, 54, said he smiled as the masked man approached with a flashlight in his left hand, still believing he was being pranked. But as the man opened the door, he pointed a 9mm pistol inside, according to police. Resto jumped into action.

“I was not going to let him win,” said Resto, whose wrestling nickname was the “Puerto Rican Punisher.” “He was not going to hurt nobody.”

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About 200 people were inside, Bercaw said. An employee who saw what was going on out front got on a loudspeaker and requested more security outside.

Resto said the man hit him in the head with his gun, leaving him almost unconscious. At one point, the suspect fired the gun and hit the door, police said. Resto eventually knocked the pistol away and pointed it at the man, surveillance footage shows. Resto said he ordered him to freeze, but the suspect charged him.

Two other security guards arrived just in time to help knock the man down. Danny Baham said he placed his hand on the back of the man’s neck and his knee over his back, but the suspect struggled on the ground. Resto compared him to the pro wrestler The Undertaker and to the killer Michael Myers from the Halloween movie series.

“I held on to the gun because I didn’t want no one else to have that gun,” Resto said. “It was my responsibility. I started this. I’m going to end this.”

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When police arrived, they said they found Rudman with three magazines that could each hold 17 rounds. Bercaw said police also found nine knives and two gun holsters in Rudman’s vehicle.

Police said Rudman had visited the strip club the night before, though his motive Sunday remains uncertain.

According to police, Rudman had been ordered by a court to give up any firearms or ammunition in October under a legal mechanism known as a risk protection order. The measure, which allows law enforcement to petition a judge to restrict someone’s access to guns if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others, was passed by Florida lawmakers in 2018 following the Parkland massacre.

When Bercaw learned about Sunday’s incident, the police chief said he thought about another high-profile shooting in Florida: the 2016 mass killing at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

“Could they have prevented something like that?” Bercaw asked about Resto and his colleagues. “I definitely think so. We’re grateful that they stood up, and that’s community police — everybody coming together.”

Resto said he and his fellow security guards were just doing their jobs.

“We have to help together to stop people like this,” Resto said. “And they are not going to stop us from living.”

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