Police in Tempe, Arizona, honored a New England Patriots player who is said to have rescued an elderly woman from being sexually assaulted in the city over the weekend.
Police say Justin Herron, a 6-meter, 5-pound offensive line officer on the team, was working in a park in Tempe late Saturday morning when he heard someone screaming for help.
Herron told police he found a 30-year-old man, Kevin Caballero, attacking a 71-year-old woman and threatening to rape her.
Police said Herron and another local resident attacked Caballero and held him until police could arrive at the scene.
“At that moment, I was shocked,” Herron said, according to USA Today. “It was 11 o’clock in the morning, in the middle of the day, in a very open field and the fact that it happened there at that time was very shocking. I wish I could tell you what I was thinking, but I could only tell someone who needs it. All I could do was hurry there to make sure I could help the victim and comfort her and be the best person I could be. “
For his quick thinking, Herron and the other man who assisted him received the “Outstanding Service” award from the Tempe Police Department.
“I’m a football player, I’m a little big. I try not to be too aggressive with people knowing I can hurt someone,” Herron said. “I have a loud voice. I shouted, I told him to get off her, then I pulled him out and told him to sit down and I told him to wait until the cops came.”
The woman, who suffered no major injuries, was taken to a local hospital and treated.
The second man, Murry Rogers, said neither he nor Herron knew the attacker before the incident.
“I’m almost twice as tall as Justin,” Rogers told the newspaper. “So I did my best to run away from the situation and help as much as I could. I shouted at him to come down. Once the attacker came down from the victim, we looked at each other and said, ‘We have to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere. A lot of effort has been put into making sure they sit down, don’t move and wait for the police. “