WASHINGTON — Two Metro employees are being hailed as heroes after they subdued a robbery suspect on a Green Line train Saturday afternoon.
Pamela Rohne and a male co-worker, who didn’t want to be identified, were aboard the train at the Anacostia station when Rondez Trayvon Tibbs, 20, of Southeast, boarded. Moments later, two men entered the train, grabbing Tibbs.
“They came up and they grabbed him around the neck and said ‘we got to get that up off you,’” Rohne said. Initially they thought Tibbs was being robbed, so they intervened, and both men eventually let go.
Rohne said she and her co-worker noticed that Tibbs kept his hand in his pocket during the struggle, and they learned he was holding a loaded handgun.
The male Metro worker moved the gun out of Tibbs’ reach and held him down, while Rohne, a station manager with Metro, called transit police.
It wasn’t until after the police arrived that the two learned Tibbs had allegedly flashed his gun at a man at the Anacostia station and robbed him, making off with $35.
As for the men seen choking Tibbs on the train, Rhone doesn’t believe they were trying to rob him. The men left the scene and police haven’t determined if they saw the robbery, or if something else led to them starting a struggle with Tibbs.
Looking back, Rohne said she was just doing what she hopes others would do for her.
“I’m just glad that it happened the way it did,” she said.
Metro Transit Police Chief Ron Pavlik applauded the quick actions of the Metro workers.
Both employees received certificates of valor from the police department. Looking back the incident, Rohne is pleased by how she and her co-worker reacted.
“I feel special, I feel like Superwoman,” she said.
Tibbs has had previous run-ins with police. He is charged with armed robbery and carrying a pistol without a license.
