BATON ROUGE - A Baton Rouge man is on his way to becoming a full-time East Baton Rouge Sheriff's deputy after stopping a robbery this year. 

In May, officials say Brandon Searles stopped 51-year-old Quarel Harris' attempt at robbing the Region Bank on South Sherwood Forest Boulevard. Searles, a Marine, says his experience helped him stay calm when stopping the robbery.

"I assessed the situation. I was watching him the whole time. I thought about the pros and cons, and I weighed them in my mind before I moved," Searles said in May. "If I didn't think I couldn't get the weapon from without putting anybody else in danger, I wouldn't have done it."

Searles told WBRZ in May that before the incident, he was already considering a career in law enforcement. On Tuesday, he took his first official step when he graduated from the Capital Area Regional Training Academy.

"I can't express how excited I am to learn. It's a blessing. Being in the academy for three months has been an eye-opener. I've learned so much. I've been able to cast away some of my naive beliefs and ideas and learn that it's not," he said.

Now, after graduating from training, he said he is ready to protect and serve the community.

"I'm just glad to be something better, something higher than myself, a part of something greater," he said. "And I feel like being a man in green is going to give me that, just that opportunity I've been looking for."