EASTPOINTE, Mich. – It was a typical Tuesday morning for Tim Blair of Eastpointe.
Every morning at 3 a.m., Blair walks to his local 7-Eleven store at 9 Mile and Hayes roads to grab a coffee on his way to the Gratiot Avenue bus stop. On this particular Tuesday, Blair definitely got his money's worth.
"If I didn't have that coffee, things could have gone a lot different," said Blair.
The coffee stain still marks the cement where Blair was approached by two gunmen on bicycles across the street from the convenience store.
"One of them stopped directly in front of me and said, 'Gimme your money,' but I didn't hear him clearly, so I got closer," said Blair. "I thought the guy needed directions."
The only thing these suspects wanted was cash.
"He then started to pull out a gun out of his sweatshirt that's when he yelled, 'Give me your money,' so I just reacted, went with my first instinct," Blair said. "The coffee I had in my hand, I just threw it on the man's face and upper chest area to blind him at the very least."
Throwing coffee on the suspect seemed to do the trick, but not for long. When Blair started running, he heard two gun shots go off.
"I ran into the 7-Eleven and had the clerk look at my back to see if I had been shot, that's when we called police," said Blair.
According to Eastpointe police, there were no shell casings at the scene, so they believe the weapon used was a revolver. The two suspects got away on their bikes before police arrived.
One suspect is believed to be a 20 or 25-year-old black man wearing a skull cap. The other was described as a 40 or 45-year-old black man with a grey beard.
The gunmen didn't get away with the 7 dollars Blair had on him that morning. As for the coffee, 7-Eleven gave Blair a new one, on the house, of course.