Jammin’ Club, a popular bar in the Pedemura San Biagio neighborhood of Vicenza, Italy, is pictured June 18, 2026. An Army reservist helped subdue and disarm a man wielding a meat cleaver at the bar in early June. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
For an Army reservist in Italy, an evening that began with the chore of taking garbage to the curb ended with the takedown of a would-be attacker wielding a meat cleaver outside a local bar.
Master Sgt. Gary Lee Jr. is being considered for a medal for his actions, which may have prevented injury to the staff of a Vicenza bar popular with American service members and civilians from the nearby military bases.
“Right place at the wrong time or wrong place at the right time, I don’t know,” Lee said in a recent interview.
The Tuesday night in early June began innocently enough for Lee, who works in finance both in his capacity as an Army reservist and as a contractor with the Southern European Task Force-Africa at Caserma Del Din in Vicenza.
The 43-year-old Mississippi native had just returned to Italy from weekend drill at Fort Devens, Mass., and was taking some trash to a curbside dumpster near Jammin’ Club in Vicenza’s historic Pedemuro San Biagio neighborhood when he saw two friends from base enjoying drinks on the bar’s patio. Having just finished a round of golf, the friends offered to buy Lee a drink.
While other patrons were eating dinner or sipping aperitivos, children were playing and riding bikes nearby, Lee said. That’s typical for the neighborhood, where he’s lived for several years, and he prefers what he described as a laid-back vibe at Jammin’ Club.
Jeffrey Errante, left, owner of Jammin’ Club, and Master Sgt. Gary Lee sit at a table at the bar in Vicenza, Italy, June 18, 2026, near the place where the two men subdued and disarmed a knife-wielding man about a week earlier. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
The doormat at Jammin’ Club in Vicenza, Italy, welcomes patrons to the bar. An Army Reserve soldier helped subdue and disarm a man wielding an 11-inch meat cleaver on the bar premises in early June 2026. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
Patrons gather on the patio of Jammin’ Club in Vicenza, Italy, on June 18, 2026. About a week earlier, an Army Reserve soldier helped subdue and disarm a man wielding a meat cleaver who tried to enter the bar and threatened to kill people. (Chad Garland/Stars and Stripes)
But the placid evening took a turn when a man on the street approached a nearby patio table and got into a loud argument with patrons seated there.
A member of the staff confronted the man and urged him to leave. Then owner Jeffrey Errante, who had been seated on the patio eating dinner with his family, did the same.
“When come the crazy people in the bar, we take out, but we don’t want a problem here,” Errante said, adding that he thinks the man had gotten drunk somewhere else before approaching the patio.
The man eventually left, but it was all a bit too much excitement for Lee’s friends, who decided to settle up. As one was inside paying his tab, Lee was on the patio texting his girlfriend when the man rounded the street corner moving quickly toward the bar’s front door.
Lee tried to wave him off and put himself between the man and the entryway. He didn’t know it until someone translated for him later, he said, but the man was shouting threats that he was going to kill everyone.
At some point, as Lee was blocking his path, the man reached behind his back into the waistband of his pants. Lee initially feared he was going for a firearm, but the man pulled out a heavy kitchen knife.
Italian authorities recovered a meat cleaver they say was brandished by a man who accosted patrons and staff at Jammin’ Club in Vicenza, Italy, before Army Reserve Master Sgt. Gary Lee helped the bar owner subdue and disarm him. (City of Vicenza)
“He was coming back on a mission, and I don’t know if it was to threaten or to do harm,” Lee said. “But you don’t really pull a knife out like that, make those motions unless you’re trying to inflict horrible (damage).”
Lee focused on remaining calm and trying to deescalate the situation, he said, but once the man went into a chopping motion, Lee knew he had to go for his wrist.
Errante was on the phone with police and had moved toward the man from the other side, grabbing a metal stool, Lee recounted. Using it almost like a lion tamer’s chair, Errante knocked the man to the ground and held him there so the soldier could disarm him, Lee said.
“He had him pinned down with the chair, which was great, because it blocked a lot of his movements to allow me to get (the knife) out,” Lee said. “He was still trying to do a motion of slicing.”
As others came to help, they let the disarmed man up, but he ran away. Police arrived about 20 minutes after the altercation and began searching for the attacker.
They eventually arrested a 48-year-old Italian man with a criminal record and charged him with threats and possession of the meat cleaver, the city of Vicenza said in a statement days after the attack. Police also requested a restraining order.
A photo the city released shows a knife that appears to have a 6-inch blade.
Aside from basic military training, Lee has had no other special instruction in hand-to-hand confrontations. If anything he may have picked up a few things about staying calm under pressure from his time in Stuttgart, Germany, supporting the 10th Special Forces Group, he said.
He credited Errante’s quick action for the fact that there was no bloodshed or injury.
“Without him, I don’t know if it would have ended as easy or as smooth without anybody getting hurt,” Lee said. “Just grabbing a knife is not enough sometimes, especially when the guy’s pretty quick.”
