HERO AMPUTEE DOWNS THIEF WITH HIS FAKE LEG

HERO

HE thought it would be easy, just walk into the convenience store, pull out a gun and walk away with the takings. But Eric F Homen hadn't banked on Stephen Cornell, a have-a-go-hero with a prosthetic limb when he set out to rob JC Grill & Pizza in Salem, MA. 
"I just reacted," said the 55-year-old, who lost his leg aged 12.
"I said, 'OK, I'll just wait,' and when he tries to come out of the store, I was going to jump him. He just came out so fast I tripped him, and he tripped me and I fell, and he fell."

"He stumbled and fell, and God, when I was on the ground I was thinking, 'Oh, my God, the next thing you know, he's going to shoot me.'"

Cornell and owner Edson Andrade disarmed the thief and dragged him back into the store in a choke hold before calling police.

It turned out the weapon was a pellet gun.
Homen, 23, pleaded not guilty to charges including armed robbery.