A family of Texas taekwondo instructors heroically stepped in to save a woman from an apparent sexual assault after hearing her screams near their dojo.
Siblings 20-year-old Simon and 22-year-old Hannah An were at their family-owned Yong-In Tae Kwon Do gym in Harris County on Tuesday afternoon when they heard “commotion going on next door,” KHOU11 reported.
By the time sheriff’s deputies arrived at the neighboring Cricket Wireless store, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said instructors from the dojo “had a male pinned to the ground.”
“I saw a man on top of a woman, and the woman was on the ground,” Hannah said of what occurred when she and Simon entered the store.
Her father, Grandmaster Han An, quickly intervened and took the suspect down “by utilizing their training and discipline,” Gonzalez wrote on X.
Simon and his younger brother, 18-year-old Christian An, also joined the scuffle.
“He just kept him in the corner. He just kept pushing down. Automatic self-defense, automatic taekwondo style,” Simon recounted to the local outlet.
Hannah and her mother, Hong An, ensured the victim safely got out of the situation and into their gym.
Hannah said they were “making sure that she’s okay because she needed that after that experience, after that situation that happened out of nowhere.”
The suspect is 19-year-old Alex Robinson, who was reportedly charged with attempted sexual assault, unlawful detention, and another assault charge for fighting with the martial arts instructors.
Alex Robinson (Harris County Jail)
Though the An family is happy they were able to intervene, they are mostly unfazed by their heroic acts.
“I thank everybody who’s calling us [heroes], but, still, I think anybody can do it,” Hannah told KHOU11.
“My life is taekwondo…I’m very proud of my family,” Grandmaster An added, saying he was just glad to be in the right place at the right time.
The Ans are also accepting new taekwondo students, the family noted.