Family of taekwondo instructors saves Texas woman from sexual assault

The piercing scream, like a audio from a horror film, triggered taekwondo instructor Simon An to draw on his a long time of martial arts instruction. 

Close to 4 p.m. Tuesday, soon following the doorways of his household-owned and -operated studio in Texas opened for night classes, An and his father, his mother, his older sister and his young brother read shrieks coming from a neighboring small business.

The relatives of 5, every with a fourth-degree black belt, operate the Yong-in Taekwondo dojo in Katy, outside the house Houston. They at first dismissed the sounds, assuming they came from employees enjoying all-around in their split area. But then a piercing “final scream” prompted the relatives into motion, An explained.

His family ran to the retail store and opened a door. There they uncovered a gentleman on top rated of a youthful girl with his palms “in [in]correct places” as she attempted to fend him off, An reported. 

An’s father, Hong, yanked the attacker absent by his shirt and pinned him to the floor. An’s sister, Hannah, grabbed the lady and rushed her out of the space although An and his brother served subdue the attacker. 

“It just happened so sudden,” explained An, who has been practising taekwondo for 16 a long time. “It was all self-protection. The intruder was attempting to operate absent — scratching, biting, anything he could do.”

But An’s father, a taekwondo grand learn, held down the attacker for 10 minutes right up until regulation enforcement arrived, he claimed. 

“My dad is robust. He predicted us to guard him,” An explained. “He had a large amount of rely on in us.”

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office has credited An and his spouse and children with preserving the younger girl from a sexual assault. 

“By using their education and self-discipline, they managed to stop the assault and hold him,” Sheriff Ed Gonzalez claimed in a collection of posts on X.

The suspect has been charged with attempted sexual assault and illegal detention, the sheriff’s department said.

“Thank you to the Yong-In dojo for your fast action in preserving others,” Gonzalez wrote.