A family of taekwondo athletes heard a woman’s screams and jumped into action
By Paradise Afshar and Zoe Sottile, CNN
(CNN) — When Simon An and his family heard screaming from a store next door to their family taekwondo studio on Wednesday outside Houston, Texas, they knew they had to find out what was happening.
An, 20, and his famiy – all of whom practice martial arts – immediately went next door. There, they found a man attempting to sexually assault a woman and intercepted the suspect, holding him down until police arrived, according to an X post from Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
An told CNN Friday the family was returning from their lunch break and were parking at the Yong-In studio in Katy when his father heard a “loud scream” as he exited his car. Then the whole family heard “a second scream, and it was loud. Very loud.” “I would describe it as a horror scream.”
His father led the family into a nearby Cricket Wireless store. He heard another scream as he opened the door and rushed to the employees’ room in the back, where he found “a man on top of the woman with his hand over her mouth,” An said.
CNN has reached out to Cricket Wireless for comment.
“Our first instinct was to save the girl,” An said. “We didn’t know what he was going to do to her.”
“My dad just pulled him off and pinned him in the corner of the building,” An described.
His father sustained some scratches and bites during the scuffle but is altogether “fine,” An added.
Alex Robinson, 19, was charged with attempted sexual assault in connection with the case, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate KHOU. Robinson is accused of taking the victim to a different location, “causing bodily injury by choking,” “touching her breast,” and ordering the victim to take off her clothes.
Robinson’s bail was set at $100,000. CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment.
In an interview with KHOU, An’s sister, 22-year-old Hannah An, said she and her mother took the alleged victim to their training center to make “sure that she’s OK, because she needed that after that experience.”
The pair’s father, Han An, told KHOU he was grateful to have been in the right place at the right time and looks forward to returning to classes.
“My life is taekwondo,” he said. “I’m very proud of my family.”
The Harris County Sheriff lauded the An family as “good samaritans” and thanked them for their “quick action in protecting others.”
The-CNN-Wire
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