A guy walks into a 7-11 and asks for a carton of cigarettes.  The clerk hands him one and he leaves without paying.  That's when his world took a turn for the worse.

The clerk told another female clerk who followed him outside the doors and told him to stop.  Instead, the man turned around and punched the clerk in the face, Quezada said.  James Sjostrom was standing in line right behind the man who took the cigarettes and saw the entire thing unfold.  “He just turned and clocked her,” Sjostrom said. “He pounded her face. It was pretty vicious.”

That’s when Sjostrom went after the man who assaulted the store clerk. As he went outside, Sjostrom said he saw the man standing over the clerk, who was kneeling over on the ground, as if he were going to punch her again. When the man saw Sjostrom coming at him, he took a swing at him, too.  But the attacker quickly found out he was no match for the bulky Sjostrom.

Sjostrom is a former Marine who taught hand-to-hand combat and currently teaches a course on Russian kettlebells, or the martial art of strength training, at the Sports Mall in Murray.

Semper Fi my heroic friend, but wait, there’s more….

Another guy in the store said he was in the Army and asked if I needed any help.”  With a grin, Sjostrom replied to the man, “The Marines got here first.”

Score: Military Heros 2, Scumbags 0