Tanya Jackson shows how to disarm a clubber. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0577551)
A WOMAN bouncer who disarmed a knife-wielding clubber said her instincts had taken over during the incident. Tanya Jackson, who has worked at Les Folies d’Amour for 13 years, grabbed the knife from Andrius Duda after another clubber told her he was flashing it around while on the dance floor.
Duda, 25, was sent to prison for five months after he pleaded guilty to carrying an offensive weapon. ‘I was on the front door when a member of the public came up to me and said there was someone waving a knife around on the dance floor,’ Mrs Jackson said.
‘We had never had anything in the club like that before, so I was just working on instincts. My first thought was to protect the rest of the clubbers because that’s part of my job as a bouncer.’
The 36-year-old, who is also assistant manager at the club, said that once she got to the dance floor, she could see Duda holding the blade. ‘I asked him to give it to me, but he was not local,’ she said. ‘I gestured for him to give it and he understood, but refused. He was flipping it over and over in his hand, from the handle to the blade, and when he was holding the blade, I just grabbed it from him.
‘My instincts were to get the knife off this person for his safety and the safety of others.’ Mrs Jackson said it dawned on her only afterwards how serious the situation could have been.
‘I wasn’t scared at the time,’ she said.
‘I just got on and did my job. It wasn’t until I was at the police station afterwards and they showed me the size of the knife that I realised the seriousness of what could have happened.
Duda was actually holding a combat flickknife with a three and a half inch (9cm) blade.
‘He could have hurt anyone in that club including himself. He looked in a very distressed state.’
She said that, thankfully, such incidents were rare in Guernsey.
‘That is one of the first times I have had to deal with a knife,’ she said.
‘And no matter how much training you do, it’s always different when you have to face it. But Folies is still a very safe club and we have bouncers who are always on the ball.’
* A police spokesman said knife incidents in Guernsey were rare but warned against trying to deal with the situation alone.
‘Our advice would be that if anybody has a knife, people should back off and not get involved,’ he said. ‘They should call us immediately because we are fully equipped and trained to deal with situations like this. Thankfully, they are few and far between in Guernsey but we would strongly advise people not to be heroes, back off and call the police.
‘This woman was doing her job and was able to disarm him but we would still recommend that people contact police and let us deal with it.’
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