Positivity: Sheriff Hails Heroes Who Captured Serial Killer

They didn’t believe the guy when he said he was on the “Most Wanted” lists (link also has video; HT Good News Blog):

Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Sheriff praises heroes
Newspaper employees say heroic act just exemplified the way they were raised

VICTORVILLE, CA — A day after they captured suspected serial killer John Wayne Thomson, two Daily Press pressmen received personal thanks from Sheriff Gary Penrod who gave them a bag filled with Sheriff’s Department goodies, including job applications.

Penrod, along with Capt. Mark Taylor of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Victorville station , stopped in at the Daily Press about 2 p.m. Tuesday to extend their gratitude to Rey Bantug and Joe Iskandar for restraining Thomson when he tried to carjack a woman in the Cask ‘n Cleaver parking lot.

“We’ve had some citizens jump in and help out, but nothing of this magnitude where it’s this bad of a guy,” Penrod said.

….. Bantug and Iskandar have been inundated with the media frenzy surrounding their good Samaritan act, but both have been able to keep their actions in perspective.

“Nothing’s really changed. To be honest, me and Rey have both probably had better fights in a bar than what this guy put up,” Iskandar said. “We thought we were just helping one person out, but it turns out it was a lot bigger than that. We didn’t ask for the publicity, we’re happier that we may have saved another victim and that the victims’ families are a little more at ease.”

The men said that regardless of whether Thomson was a serial killer or a just a carjacker as they originally believed, they would have responded the same way.

The men were not convinced, even when they restrained Thomson and he told them that he was one of the most wanted people in the area, Bantug said.

“I just thought he was a crackhead. I said, ‘yeah, and I’m the pope,’ ” Iskandar said.

After his arrest, initially for attempted carjacking, Thomson spent about 2 1/2 hours at the Victorville station. But it only took a second for authorities to know who they were dealing with.

“He walked in the door and we went, ‘that’s the guy,’ ” Taylor said. “We kind of thought that he was still around, and we thought he might be in the High Desert.”

….. “It’s great recognition, we’re both honored. We were raised this way, but I think what Rey and I have found out through all this is that most people wouldn’t do the same in this situation, which is really sad. It lets people know that there are still people willing to help. We may look like some young punks, but you can’t judge someone by the way they look,” Iskandar said.

Iskandar has been a Daily Press employee for eight years and Bantug for two years. But after meeting Penrod and receiving the job application Bantug joked, “I don’t know about you Joe, but I’m applying.”