Student picks wrong home for break-in
By Lise Fisher
Staff writer
Published: Monday, March 15, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 11:37 p.m.
A man trying to break into a southwest Gainesville home early Sunday made the mistake of picking the home of a martial arts trainer with a black belt.
When police arrived at 17 S.W. 24th St., they found Christopher Brunson, a 22-year-old University of Florida student in criminology from Gainesville, on the ground with Mark-Jason "M-J" White, 26, standing guard. White, also a UF masters student who has a second-degree black belt and teaches a form of martial arts called Cuong Nhu, caught Brunson entering the downstairs part of the home he shares with his two sisters.
"In essence, he gift wrapped this case for us. He did a great job," Lt. Keith Kameg said about White.
Brunson later told police he had been out drinking, had too much and thought White's residence was his home, which officers reported is located almost four miles away.
White said he heard something in the downstairs part of the home where his sisters live at about 7 a.m. Sunday.
He rushed downstairs, wearing shorts, no shoes or a shirt, and carrying a short stick and a sheathed knife and found a man starting to climb through a broken window.
"I told him to get down," White said. At first the man seemed to be following orders but then, White said, the man started getting up. "I quickly moved behind him and struck (him) once in the middle of the back and he basically flattened out," White said, describing how he used a more gentle part of his fist to hit the man on the back just below his shoulder blades.
"At that point, he was more pliable," and followed commands, White said.
Police reported Brunson, arrested for burglary of an occupied dwelling, had been banging at the front door of the home and then picked up a chair and threw it into a window. Brunson later told police he did remember throwing the chair but nothing else afterward.
Police said there was no indication Brunson had any injuries.
White said his sisters weren't home at the time and they didn't know Brunson.
This isn't the first time White, who has lived in Gainesville since 2002, has had to ward off an intruder or attackers locally.
He surprised a woman who broke into his home when he was living behind Norman Hall. He also twice fended off muggers when he worked as a pizza delivery man.
Currently in a master's program in children's literature, White also runs a dojo on campus and helps out at the Unified Training Center in Gainesville. He's been training in different forms of martial arts, focusing on Cuong Nhu, since 1998.
White said he wasn't sure why Brunson tried to get into the home. "People make mistakes. He was saying some weird stuff about it being cold," he said.
"That's why I didn't go any harder on him. I didn't use a more painful hit. I tell my students all the time, if there is a situation where you have to use self-defense, you have to monitor what you're doing."
Nonetheless, White said he was prepared for a tougher adversary. The knife he had, called a karambit, has a brass knuckle edge on the front and a curved dagger.
The stick is called a tambo and is a basic weapon a martial arts student would start out with, he said. But it only takes one shot with the stick to cause injury.
"It's nothing to joke about," he said.
Originally Posted by Dragonzbane76
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