Shocking surveillance footage captured the moment a female jogger fought off her male attacker who sexually assaulted her and tried to abduct her in broad day light.
Gordon Lyons, 57, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, has since been arrested and charged with kidnapping, indecent assault and battery on a person age 14 or older, and assault and battery.
Video, taken from surveillance cameras across the street, showed the 37-year-old woman jogging down the street at around 7.35am Sunday.
This is the moment a woman was attacked in broad daylight while out for her morning run
Surveillance video captured the attack, before the woman was able to fight off her attacker, who fled to his car (pictured)
Suddenly a car pulled up in front of her, and a man climbed out the driver’s seat and chased the jogger into some nearby bushes, out of shot.
Police say he grabbed the woman, who has not been named, by both arms and sexually assaulted her, while dragging her towards his car.
But the victim fought off her attacker, and was able to break free.
‘The woman was able to scream and fight with Lyons, causing both of them to fall to the ground. Lyons then got up and ran back to his vehicle and fled the area,’ police said in a statement.
Video shows the man, who police believe is Lyons, limping slightly as he ran back to his car and sped away.
‘I kept thinking this wasn’t happening,’ she said on an appearance on Good Morning America on Wednesday. ‘Even as he ran out of the car, I thought maybe he is having a medical emergency. But when he ran straight for me, I thought OK this is happening.’
During an appearance on Good Morning America, the woman – who has chosen to remain anonymous – said she refused to let her ‘story end’ with the attack
Video, taken from surveillance cameras across the street, showed the 37-year-old woman jogging down the street at around 7.35am Sunday (she is pictured waiting to cross the street)
Suddenly a car pulled up in front of her, and a man climbed out the driver’s seat
The surveillance video showed him chasing the jogger into some nearby bushes, out of shot
Moments later, he reemerged, limping, and ran back to his car after the victim fought him off
Lyons fled the scene (pictured) but the quick-thinking jogger wasable to snap a photo of his car as he sped away
The victim, who appeared in silhouette to hide her face during the TV appearance, said all she knew at that moment was that she was not going to let her attacker win.
‘It was kind of a moment of fear and this, ‘I’m not going to let this happen. This is not how my story ends.”
‘I just knew that I needed to do whatever I needed to in order to be OK,’ she told the Brockton Enterprise. ‘I knew I needed to defend myself and be smart. I knew I needed to do something so this person wouldn’t just walk away.’
An elderly local neighbor, who spotted the attack, also came over to help.
Donald Prohovich, 85, told Boston 25 News, he asked: ‘Hey, what’s going on?’
Eventually Lyons gave up and ran back to his car.
The quick-thinking jogger was even able to snap a photo of Lyon’s car as he sped away – which police were able to use to track down and identify the attacker.
She says she is intensely ‘grateful’ to the neighbor who ‘probably didn’t know what he was going to do’ but still bravely confronted the attacker.
Prohovich also praised the jogger for fighting back, and for having the piece of mind to take a photo of her attacker’s car moments after the assault.
‘She was terrific,’ Prohovich said. ‘She was a heroine, actually.’
Elderly local neighbor, Donald Prohovich, 85, who spotted the attack and came over to help praised the woman as a ‘heroine’
Police, who received multiple 911 calls about the attack, also praised her saying she was ‘anything but a victim’.
‘She fought back, she was not going to be a victim,’ a Brockton police spokesman said. ‘She was a strong individual.’
A passing driver who witnessed the attack sped after Lyons as he fled the scene.
Lyons crashed a short distance away on Route 24 in West Bridgewater and police arrested him at the scene.
The 57-year-old, who was previously convicted of rape in 1978, was injured in the crash and is being held at Boston Medical Center in the custody of Bridgewater police.
He hid under a bed sheet while he was arraigned in his hospital room Tuesday. He has entered a plea of not guilty.
Despite his previous rape conviction, Lyons is not listed on the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board or the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender Public Website.
Meanwhile the woman, who declined medical attention at the scene, has praised the response of the local community who came to her aid.
‘I am having a tough time. I’m afraid a lot,’ the jogger told the Enterprise on Monday. ‘But the one thing I keep reminding myself is that there was one person yesterday that tried to hurt me, but there were 20 or more who tried to help me.’
She was out jogging again this morning, with a police escort.