Dramatic footage reveals that a Texas middle school teacher is being praised as a hero for grabbing his rifle and rescuing a 15-year-old girl who was being attacked outside his house.
Around 12:30 a.m. on July 28, the youngster stepped off a Metro bus on Houston’s east side, and the attacker followed her inside a gated apartment complex, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
When he heard the girl yelling for assistance outside his flat, good Samaritan David Garza practically leaped, almost naked out to assist her.
“I saw a man beating up a woman on the ground and trying to take her clothes off,” Garza said to KHOU as she peered out the window.
Security footage reveals that Garza quickly reached for his gun and raced outside to face the assailant. He said the girl was held by the suspect’s hair.
“I ran outside, and asked what’s going on. The girl screamed, ‘I’m 15, help me!’ I pointed the gun at him and told him to get off her,” Garza said.
Video obtained by the outlet shows Garza holding the handgun on his front porch — still shirtless — and screaming, “Get away from her! Hey! Come here!”
A neighbour told KHOU that they think Garza prevented the girl from facing a catastrophe.
“At first, I was scared, I thought she was going to get raped. I think if he didn’t come out, she would have gotten raped,” the neighbour said.
Garza said it’s not the first time he’s had to chase down someone attacking a child — something he said he wouldn’t hesitate to do again even though he “was scared, too.”
“I think it’s something anyone else would have done — come help a child,” the teacher replied. “
She needed help more than I was afraid, so I had to do it.”
Andy Kahan, a victim advocate for the Houston Crime Stoppers, said he was grateful that Garza “did the right thing.”
“I take my hat off to you,” Kahan told the outlet.
Police are looking for any information about the suspect, who was dressed in a black hoodie with a white Reebok logo, blue jeans and white tennis shoes at the time of the attack.
