It’s no joke. The store clerk was a Gold Gloves champion with hope of making the 2016 Olympic team.
Eric Sydnor is preparing for the U.S. national team boxing trials which begin Nov. 30 in Chattanooga, Tenn. He works at a 7-Eleven store near the University of Pittsburgh.
“It’s like one of those things where it was a blur what exactly was going on,” he told Pittsburgh television station KDKA.
Johnson left the store in police custody, charged with robbery, aggravated assault and criminal mischief. Online court records on Tuesday showed he faces a preliminary hearing Oct. 15.
He also was in a Pittsburgh-area hospital three days after the incident. “He got slammed,” Sydnor said.
Sydnor was the Western Pennsylvania Golden Gloves champion two years ago and boxes out of a gym in nearby Sharpsburg, said Jose Caraballo, a pro boxer who trains Sydnor.
Caraballo told The Associated Press that Sydnor injured a tendon in his hand during the incident, and that Johnson bit Sydnor. He’s hoping the injury doesn’t delay Sydnor’s training.
Sydnor denied he was a hero.
“The fact that I’m a boxer had nothing to do with anything,” he told KDKA. It’s just what’s right, and what’s wrong."
