Fresno man who fought off masked robber at Starbucks honored at City Hall

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno man who risked his life to save a couple of Starbucks baristas was honored at City Hall on Thursday for his heroism.

Cregg Jerri became an overnight star after the video of him turning the tables on a masked man inside Starbucks went viral.

And on Thursday that spotlight was back on the business executive.

Mayor Lee Brand presented Cregg Jerri with the prestigious Carnegie Hero Fund Medal - an award that's given to only a handful of brave individuals across the US and Canada each year.

"I had no idea it would go viral like people told me. I had no idea the impact it would have. Obviously I just did what I had to do and it went everywhere," Jerri says.

In the Summer of 2017, Jerri was minding his own business at a northwest Fresno Starbucks when an armed man wearing a Transformers mask attempted to rob the coffee house.

Dressed in a T-shirt and flip flops, Jerri sprang into action, picked up a chair and hit the crook over the head with it.

The two men brawled, then wrestled on the ground for a couple of minutes until police arrived.

"My first thought was I got to get out of here - this is a robbery. But my second nature took over."

Jerri admits he forgot about his own safety when he saw the masked man approach the Starbucks baristas with a gun and knife.

"It's a credit to mankind. Its a credit to the city of Fresno...an ordinary person like you or me being in a situation like this to make an instantaneously decision to save somebody's life to risk your own life in doing that," said Mayor Lee Brand.

During the tussle Jerri took a knife to the neck and says he needed six staples to close the stab wound but he's doing just fine now.