A group of good samaritans are receiving praise from their community after they rushed to the aid of a California Highway Patrol officer Friday.
Everardo Navarro is one of the people who witnessed the attack and immediately went to help.
“Since I see the officer down, I was concerned about the guy grabbing the officer’s gun and shooting the officer,” Navarro told KTLA.
The incident occurred around 5 p.m. on May 19 at the northbound entrance to the 5 Freeway in Santa Ana. Police received had received a call about a man yelling at vehicles and attempting to take down a freeway sign.
The officer who responded initially planned to let the man go with a warning, but without warning the man attack the officer.
“Many of these situations, they end up becoming dangerous at a moment’s notice,” CHP Officer Anselmo Templado said.
Video of the tense scene was uploaded to Instagram.
When Navarro came across the situation, he wasn’t sure what to do, but he knew he had to do something.
“When I actually get there, for a split second I didn’t know what to do. I just punched the guy in the ribs,” he told ABC7 Los Angeles.
Thanks to Navarro and the other two good samaritans, the officer was able to free himself and arrest the suspect.
“I think it’s amazing that three Good Samaritans came in and stepped in and helped our officer out,” Anselmo said. “It’s not very often that you see something like that. Usually, it’s just people recording and standing by, but I just want to thank those three Good Samaritans for helping out our officer. It could’ve ended very badly, but luckily for them no one was seriously injured, and we got the subject under control.”
Thank you to the three people who stepped up and helped an officer who they saw was in trouble. We need more people like this!
READ MORE:
- Good Samaritans rush to help police officer being attacked on the side of the road by a suspect
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