Owner: It was fight back or die

Jack Wu felt that if he didn’t fight back, he would die.

An alleged beating from a man with a home-made mace forced him to the floor in searing pain, Wu says.

Wu did everything in his power to stop the alleged attacker robbing the Discount Tobacco store he owned in Charles St, Hastings, just before 5pm last Saturday.

Usually a quiet time of the day, he had decided to take cardboard out to the front of his store, when what he thought was a “normal customer” approached him at the entrance.

“I said ‘you go first’ and he didn’t say anything, he was just standing there. So I went first and once I go inside, I suddenly felt not right — he was following me too close,” Wu said.

Then the man revealed a pole from underneath his hoodie.

“He hit me down to the ground, behind the counter,” Wu told Hawke’s

Bay Today. “And I tried to fight him for several minutes.”

Wu says the mace broke so the man tried to kick him, before customers entered and scared him off.

Although Wu did not go to hospital, he had extensive bruising and other moderate injuries.

When he saw the mace on the ground, broken by the impact of the beating, he realised the seriousness of what had unfolded.

Wu has owned the store for about five years and has been robbed numerous times.

Two years ago, he was held at knifepoint by two men. He wasn’t hurt but it unnerved him to the point he looked over his shoulder for more than a year, and had a cage installed around the counter.

The cage was unlocked during the latest incident, however, and now Wu is scared again.

On Wednesday, Keri Anthony Phillips, 50, was arrested in relation to the incident and charged with assault with intent to rob and injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He appeared in Hastings District Court yesterday and was remanded in custody without plea.