HICKORY, N.C. — A comic book store owner is one of several workers who are being hailed as heroes.
They’re credited with stopping a man accused of sexually assaulting someone at a Hickory shopping center on April 13. Police told Channel 9′s Dave Faherty they were able to make an arrest thanks to the group of strangers.
Because of the nature of the attack, police can’t release too many details. But they told Faherty they will be giving citizenship awards to the people who went above and beyond to help someone else.
The suspect, Justin Johnson, has been charged with attempted second-degree rape and is in jail under a $75,000 bond.
Jake Edwards, who owns Time Tunnel Comics, was one of the people who intervened. Edwards has thousands of comic books at his store, but he never thought he would have face something right out of their pages.
“I heard someone screaming,” Edwards said. “The owner of the coffee shop says someone was being attacked.”
Police said Edwards and his friend Mark Ball, along with two women at Shabby Shears hair salon, Wilma Little and Sharona Hudson, tried to stop the sexual assault, which happened during store hours at a nearby business. Little and Hudson said they heard a woman screaming.
“He had her down on the ground and she was screaming for help, and it didn’t faze him that I was there,” Little said.
“I pepper-sprayed him and she came in behind me as back-up support,” Hudson said.
The two said they called 911 and then saw Edwards go into the business. They said he put the suspect in a headlock and sat on him until police arrived. Ball also helped.
Faherty asked Edwards if he considers himself a real-life hero.
“No,” he said. “I did what anybody would do, the only difference is that I was here. Anybody that would’ve been here would’ve done what I did.”
Little is thankful so many people, including Edwards, tried to help.
“It was very heroic,” she said. “He definitely did not know what he was walking into. I was not prepared for what I seen. It was very scary.”
Little and Hudson told Faherty they now plan on taking a self-defense course because of this. They, along with Edwards, will be recognized by the city on Friday.
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