but john purnell did not. the retired protective service officer decided he wassing going to fight back. now he knew guns . he was a protective service officer. he knew how to handle a gun. do you think that he was thinking a at the time that he could stop the rob me, all of his instincts, all of his job training and the last conversation we had, it all kicked in. it all kicked in. and when i seen him go into action and do what he did, i could just only think about our last conversation. john purnell took a shot to the hand from one gunman and a fatal blow to the neck from the other. the gun hand man had a 45 automatic. that gun sounded like a canon. the police report says the gunman didn't get much, 50 bucks , a phone and some credit cards. d.c. police say the gunmen got away from a black chevy malibu and 30 minutes after the robbery a black chevy malibu was set on fire in the 1,000 block of yeuk way, but to this date no direct link has ever been established between the car fire and the robbery. over the year

. >> today the white house said those comments made by donald trump were just a equal john purnell. but police officers around the country aren't laughing. tonight the chief of the montgomery county police department is getting national reaction after taking issue with president trump. it stems from the president's remarks during a speech to police officers saying they shouldn't be too nice to those under arrest and that's all sparked chief maker to fire off a letter that is now going viral. fits. >>reporter: marina, good evening, thomas major is not just the police chief in montgomery county, maryland. he is the president of a national organization, an organization called the major cities police chiefs association. now, that represents off the largest jurisdictions in the united states of america and in tha role major is authorizationed to speak on behalf of some of the biggest cities in this country. now, the white house said yesterday that when president trump made that remark about not being too nice to suspects who were in custody, well, the white house says that that was a jok