Customers share experience of fighting off suspected armed robbery suspects at Winnipeg restaurant

Customers at a Winnipeg restaurant are still in shock following a violent suspected armed robbery Tuesday evening.

Just before 8:30 p.m. Gizzys Restaurant & Bar on Ness Avenue was running through its usual evening crowd of customers, including the teams playing pool in the back.

Bartender, Alesha Dyck, was serving another customer when she said she heard someone calmly say ‘this is a stick up,’ as they pointed a sawed-off shotgun at her.

READ MORE: Patrons wrestle shotgun from suspect after robbery at St. James restaurant: Winnipeg police

“All of a sudden I see rustling over here and I kind of looked and that’s when everything started clicking,” Dyck said.

She said she realized it was a stick up, but then the suspect ran to the back of the bar where the teams were playing pool.

Gary Anderson was one of the guys at the back playing pool with his league and watching the hockey game when he said chaos broke out.

“All of a sudden a guy runs in full out in black…says ‘this is a stick up’,” Anderson said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "All of a sudden a guy runs in full out in black…says 'this is a stick up'," Anderson said.

He said no one knew if this was a prank or if it was really happening. But he said the moment the masked man pointed and shot his gun at the ceiling, it was clear this wasn’t a prank and everyone dropped to the floor.

WATCH: Customers and staff of Gizzys Restaurant describe the violent suspected armed robbery Tuesday evening.  Global’s Zahra Premji reports.

1:22 Customers share experience of fighting off suspected armed robbery suspects at Winnipeg restaurant

“We had a hero on our team, Rick, who came in after fighting another guy apparently out front, wrestled a crow bar from him, came and struck another guy,” Anderson said.

Anderson said Rick wrestled a crowbar from one of the suspects and ran to tackle the shotgun armed man near the pool tables.

He said if it wasn’t for his friend and now his hero, Rick, he wouldn’t be able to go home to his little three-year-old boy like he did last night.

WATCH: Winnipeg Police Service Constable Tammy Skrabek describes what police know about the incident.

1:13 Winnipeg Police describe the incident at Gizzys Restaurant

Other customers jumped in, using anything they could find from chairs to their own pool cues to try and knock the masked individual down to the ground and keep him down.

Alesha Dyck said while one of the customers tried to fight off the suspect, he sustained injuries himself, and ended up going to the hospital.

Winnipeg police said the man was taken to hospital with minor injuries and was later released.

None of the three suspects have been located. Witnesses told Global News one was wearing a black ski mask, another had possibly a scream mask, and the third was wearing a jester’s hat.