Texas family of taekwondo black belts ends alleged assault

“The adrenaline was pumping, through the roof. No limits,” said Simon. “I was shaking a little.”

Within seconds, Simon’s father burst into a nearby cell phone store, where he said he saw a young man on top of a woman, one hand over her mouth and the other touching her inappropriately . Simon’s suspicions had already been aroused: earlier in the day, he had noticed a “strange” encounter between the two.

From there, the scene unfolded quickly: Simon said his father grabbed the man’s shirt, but the man managed to take it off. Han then grabbed the man’s pants, keeping one arm straight and steady while using the other to block any attacks. He managed to pin him down.

As the two men struggled, the man allegedly bit Han on the arm and neck. Simon came to his father’s aid, kicking and punching him in the chin. His youngest brother, Christian, 18, locked the main entrance and barricaded it with furniture in case the suspect tried to escape, and his mother, Hong, 55, and sister Hannah, 22 years old, began to lead the victim to safety in their taekwondo. school. “She was pretty shaken up,” Simon said.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez praised the family as “good Samaritans” in a Facebook post. “Using their training and discipline, they were able to stop the assault and restrain him,” he said, adding that the suspect, Alex Robinson, 19, faces charges of attempted of sexual assault, assault and unlawful detention.

A day later, the family discussed the incident together and Han demonstrated what techniques he used to take control of the suspect.

“He gave me some advice in case another emergency like this happened,” Simon said, adding: “It still shocks me today just talking about it, because it is, for me, a unique thing in my life.”

Although he used his taekwondo skills to help stop the attack, he said he hoped the public knew they could still intervene.

“If a regular person saw something like this, I hoped they would come and help us,” he said. “Just help the person in need.”

Simon said his father first noticed the suspect around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, when he saw him cycling in the area. Then, returning from a meal break around 4 p.m., he saw through the store window that the man appeared to be hugging the victim and “thought nothing of it,” Simon said.

But Han felt uncomfortable when he saw the man dragging the girl into a room. Shortly afterward, he heard the screams, Simon said.

Robinson could not be reached Wednesday evening and no information about his legal representation was immediately available.

The An family has run the Yong-in Taekwondo Academy, just outside Houston, for about 17 years, and everyone in the family except Han is fourth-degree black belt. According to their dojang’s website, Han is a grandmaster in taekwondo, a sixth-degree black belt in hapkido, a fifth-degree black belt in kickboxing gwon-gyokdo, and a master of haidong gumdo sword fighting.

Most of the children started learning taekwondo at the age of 4 or 5, Han said in a text message, proudly declaring that they would take a test for their fifth-degree black belt this Saturday.

“I would say my mom is the toughest in our family,” Simon said. As for her fighting abilities, “she can get pretty ugly sometimes,” he added with a laugh.