Hero Teacher Saves Teen from Sexual Assault

A middle school teacher from the Houston metro area is being called a hero after he interrupted the assault of girl who was being attacked by a man inside the grounds of a Houston apartment complex. The suspect, whose name has not been released, initially escaped but was reportedly later taken into custody by police.

David Garza told KHOU, "I looked out the window and I saw a man beating up a woman on the ground… trying to take her clothes off," he said. That’s when he grabbed his pistol, and video from a security camera shows Garza exiting his apartment with just his boxers and the side arm for protection, not even wearing shoes.

"I ran outside, 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.

He told KHOU 11 that the assailant had the young victim on the ground, holding her by the hair, but that after he pointed his weapon, "He took his hands off right away. He went chasing after her, I went chasing after him and she got away," he said.

She reportedly escaped into a nearby apartment where she knew the tenants. An anonymous neighbor who was watching from her window said, "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.”

Garza said it's not the first time he intervened to protect a child, and that, "I think it's something anyone else would have done; come help a child," Garza said.

Investigators released a photo of the suspect prior to his arrest. The suspect reportedly followed the girl when she got off a bus near the apartment complex in which the attack occured on Houston's east side just north of I-10.