Kevin Holland is making a habit of heroism.
On Monday evening, Holland was eating at Ra Sushi in the Highland Village area of Houston when a man entered the restaurant, pulled out a gun, and opened fire. Then man was the taken down and subdued by multiple individuals inside the restaurant, including Holland.
Speaking on Wednesday’s episode of The MMA Hour, Holland recounted the entire incident and the role he played in apprehending the shooter.
“We’re at the sushi spot, we’re chilling, having a good time,” Holland said. “I’ve got my uncle with me. … There was a party behind us, a birthday party. So when I heard the bang originally, I’m like, ‘That’s a champagne bottle.’ I’m thinking my people back here are having a good time. So I turned to look behind me and people are running, glass is breaking. OK, that’s not a champagne bottle, that’s a gunshot.
” I see that the people in front of my are low. He’s standing up as if he is about to run. He’s standing up like he’s about to run. So as I’m running down, I pick up a chair and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna use this chair, this chair’s gonna come in handy.’
” I grab the chair, and then hit the corner. At this time, they’re still wrestling and the guys are kind of spaced out, the shooter is getting back into the motion. But the guy still has a good grip on the gun and he’s holding the hammer — that’s probably the best thing he did, is hold the hammer. So I get over there, I’m trying to make out who the two guys are, so I put down the chair, because I don’t want to hit the wrong person with the chair. The shooter has been identified and I help to remove the gun. We first aimed the gun downwards because we thought it would be better to point towards the front. But as we aim down, I think, “We’re upstairs. What if someone is downstairs?”
“So I aimed it towards the island and then up top. This is when I saw the man’s wrist begin to jam. I pulled the f back and put the choke on him. My uncle was watching. He’s looking at me and saying, “He’s out!” Then, he took the guy’s arm. Alright, he’s out!’
“I roll over, get on top, throw the backpack out, the guy wakes to and I’m holding him by the back of the head and let him know, ‘If you move again, I’m about to smack you. I’m gonna hit you really hard. It might be a good idea to relax. … It was a good night. Nobody got hurt, everybody went home safe.”
Holland intervened in preventing a crime for the second consecutive time within the last six months. Holland subdued an accused carjacker from Saginaw in Texas, October. Holland, who had previously stopped a crime, had great respect for the victim. He said that he would like to know the identity of the suspect so he could reward him with fight tickets.
” I want to locate the person who jumped in and grabbed the man to slow down filming,” Holland stated. Holland said, “I would like to locate that guy and give him and his lady tickets to UFC fights. So if we can find that guy, we can get that guy some tickets to a fight, I think that’d be lovely.”
It’d be a nice gesture in appreciation for the courageous act of the unnamed person.
Holland was not given a similar gesture of appreciation from the restaurant.
“I ain’t gonna lie, Ra should’ve covered my bill,” Holland said, laughing. I still had to spend $200 on you guys. Yeah, Ra — next time, they better cover my bill. Ra was tripping. I understand they were going through some stuff but Ra was tripping.”
