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“You see it all the time in movies and on TV, but you never think it’s going to happen in real life until it happens. At that point, I was in shock,” Justin Herron said at a press conference Wednesday with Murry Rogers, another bystander credited with stopping the attack. Both received outstanding service awards from the Tempe Police Department.
A 30-year-old man was attempting to sexually assault a 71-year-old woman in a public park, police say, when Herron and Rogers heard screams for help. Herron, a 6’5 “offensive lineman who just finished his rookie season with the New England Patriots, said he was walking around when he heard the attack.
“I just knew then I had to go,” said Herron, who ordered the man to stop and pulled him away from the woman.
“I try not to be too aggressive with individuals knowing that I could potentially hurt someone,” Herron said. The suspect complied and stood still while the police were on the way.
Rogers said he was in the park for his daughter’s birthday party and prevented the suspect from fleeing while Herron consoled the victim. “It was terrifying to be a witness,” he said.
The man has been taken into custody and an investigation into the attack is ongoing, police said.
“Without the swift actions of Mr. Justin Herron and Mr. Murry Rogers, this vicious attack could have been much worse,” said Tempe Police Detective Natalie Barela.
The two Good Samaritans were reunited with the victim privately before the press conference.
“It was heartwarming to see her, but also heartbreaking to see how she responded to the trauma and how she copes with it,” Herron said. “No one should be going through this.”
“She thanked us. She called us her angels,” Rogers said. “I’m a bit of a town crier so it was very emotional.”
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