TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - A quick-thinking driver helped bring an assault and abduction to a halt. It happened in the 1900 block of Berdan near Upton in west Toledo Sunday morning.
Police say a woman was walking home when a man tried to assault her. The suspect is still on the run, but the woman is fine thanks to that driver.
Chris Rice said his gut told him exactly what he should do. Police say if it had not guided his actions, the focus of their investigation could be completely different.
"I saw a girl standing there with her arm out in the air, and her eyes were real big, and some guy had a hold of her by her mouth. I could tell she was in distress," said Rice.
Rice just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was 3:30 Sunday morning when he spotted a woman on Berdan fighting for her life.
"Just seeing their faces. She had, like, the bug eyes like 'help me,' and he had the bug eyes like 'was that a cop?'" said Rice.
Police say the woman was walking home from a 7-11 talking on the phone when a man approached her and tried to pay her for sex. According to the police report, when she refused the man grabbed her and tried to drag her away to sexually assault her.
The victim says the man identified himself as Brandon, and was around 20 years old, about 5'3" tall, weighed about 125 pounds and had black hair and brown eyes.
"First I thought it might have been a boyfriend/girlfriend type thing. But still, it's not OK to grab your girlfriend like that. So I drove around the block, parked and called the cops," explained Rice.
Rice said he could have kept driving but his gut told him not to let the two out of his sight.
"For him to have her around the mouth or the throat, or however he was holding her, I don't know, he had a hold of her good. I was like ‘Well, what if they are fighting and he killed her, and I drove away and didn't do anything?'" said Rice.
So Rice stayed until police came, but the suspect did not. Police are still looking for that suspect and say what Rice did helped save a woman's life.
Rice said he just did what he thought was right.
"My mom lives right down the street and if that was happening to her - and she doesn't drive, she walks here all the time to get cigarettes or whatever - if someone was grabbing her like that, I would hope that somebody would stop and call the cops, or do something," said Rice.
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Chris Rice said he could have kept driving, but his gut told him not to let the man and woman out of his sight.
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