A MIDDLE school teacher has jumped into action to save a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly being sexually assaulted by an attacker.
Surveillance footage captured the heroic moment David Garza ran out of his apartment welding his gun when he heard a girl screaming for help.
The incident happened just before midnight on July 28 in an apartment complex in Harris County, Texas — about five miles east of Houston.
“I looked out the window, and I saw a man beating up a woman on the ground. He was trying to take her clothes off,” the middle school teacher said, per CBS affiliate KHOU.
“I ran upstairs and grabbed my pistol. Then, I came outside and asked what’s going on.
“The girl screamed, ‘I’m 15. Help me.’ So, I pointed my gun at him.”
Garza said the suspect had the young girl by her hair when he walked outside.
“He took his hands off right away,” he recalled after he ran outside.
“He went chasing after her, I went chasing after him and she got away.”
In the video, Garza points his gun at the man before running off after him.
He said the girl went to the apartment of someone she knew.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the man was on the bus with the 15-year-old girl and followed her into the apartment complex.
A young neighbor recalled what she saw from her window the night of the incident.
“At first, I was scared, I thought she was going to get raped,” she told the outlet.
“I think if he didn’t come out, she would have gotten raped.”
Garza said it wasn’t the first time he chased a man who was trying to hurt a child.
“he girl screamed, ‘I’m 15. Help me.’ So, I pointed my gun at him.
David Garza
He recalled what was running through his head when he ran outside, saying he “just did the right thing.”
“I was scared, too. I’m not going to lie, but she needed help more than I was afraid, so I had to do it,” he told KHOU.
Andy Kahan, a victim advocate for Crime Stoppers, said this man needs to be found and taken off the streets.
“If you’re willing to do this where everybody is and people can actually see what you’re doing, that makes me wonder: A. Is this your first time? B. We need to get you off the streets before you continue to hurt young girls again,” Kahan told the outlet.
He was also thankful Garza had stepped in when he did.
“With that, I take my hat off to you,” Kahan said.
Police are still looking for the man and released a picture of the suspect to keep an eye out for.
He was wearing a black sweatshirt with a white Reebok logo, blue jeans, and white sneakers at the time of the attack.
The U.S. Sun has contacted the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for an update.
