Good Samaritan with a gun stops possible shooter outside restaurant

Customers at the Jack’s Bait Shop in North Naples got the scare of their life when one man tried to wreak havoc outside.

If it wasn’t for Good Samaritan, named Tom, standing by, an evening out could have turned into someone’s worse nightmare.

“You wonder, is this ever going to happen to me, and it did,” Tom said.

According to witnesses, what Tom did may have prevented a tragedy.

“I pulled into Jack’s, just walked in to grab a beer. Walked outside to sit down, and there was a table of ladies to the right of me,” Tom said. “Almost immediately, this black Lincoln pulled up with all dark windows and he did a hell of a burnout.”

Tom says what happened next was a blur.

Tom says a man, who deputies later identified and arrested as Keith Zavattaro, 55, of Naples, drove back to the front of the building, stopped and then slowly rolled down his window to then point what looked like a gun.

“So I got behind the cement pillar and showed my pistol, and he took off out of there really quick,” Tom said.

According to the arrest report, other people outside also saw the gun.

Zavattaro, a regular to Jack’s Bait Shop, was just kicked out of the bar for causing problems earlier that day.

Investigators say Zavattaro gave deputies a hard time when they tried to arrest him at his house by hitting and kicking them.

Deputies say they couldn’t find a gun in his car, but Zavattaro will face charges of battery on a law enforcement officer.

“I just know it is a crazy world,” Tom said. “You never figure it’s going to happen to you, but it happened last night.”