A handful of good Samaritans fought off a man attacking a woman in a northwest Denver apartment complex parking lot Monday morning, then held the man down until police could arrive.
One witness said the victim was nearly naked as she tried to escape her attacker before three passersby intervened.
“She was screaming for help, asking me to call 911,” Michelle Orozco told 9News. Orozco flagged down one passerby to help, then called police.
“It was either run him over with my vehicle or jump on him or do something.”
Denver Police spokeswoman Virginia Quinones said the passersby made all the difference in the attack.
“Without these good Samaritans, the suspect possibly could have fled the scene,” Quinones said. “The victim would have sustained more serious injuries than she did.”
Instead, police took 46-year-old Juan Loyas, a man who stands 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 250 pounds, into custody on suspicion of sexual assault and burglary.
The victim was taken to the hospital, as was one of the good Samaritans, though neither had life-threatening injuries. Their names were not released.
The attack began at about 9:15 a.m., Quiñones said. The attacker, a stranger to the woman, Quiñones said, broke into the woman’s house in the 4500 block of Pecos Street and began assaulting her.
