An 18-year-old woman with 12 years’ experience training in karate was able to fight off a sexual assailant on her Southern California college campus and chase him away last week.
A suspect was later identified on security cameras and surrendered to the college, which notified the police. He’s been arrested on charges relating to the assault.
At 12:40 a.m. on Sep. 24, the victim was sitting at a picnic table outside her dorm on the campus of Chapman University in Orange, California, talking with her boyfriend in Hawaii, according to KTTV-TV in Los Angeles. A man wearing a skeleton mask approached her and hit her.
“He punches me in the face, I hit the trash can behind me,” she told the station.
She said her assailant wore a horrifying mask.
“At first, it reminded me of ‘The Scream,’ sort of, because the eyes were blacked out,” she said, likely referring to either the Edvard Munch painting or the 1996 horror movie called “Scream” where the mask featured prominently.
“I couldn’t see any eyes. I specifically remember the skeleton part on top and mouth being blacked out as if he was wearing the full thing and had a mask on, too.”
The attacker pinned her down and sexually assaulted her, but the black belt managed to fight back.
“Somehow, he got off me and I chased him up the stairs cursing him out,” the spirited young woman explained.
Meanwhile, two male students in a nearby dorm heard her screams and rushed to her aid — knocking out the screen in the window of their room to get to her faster.
“We heard screaming outside,” Michael Zapesotsky told WTTV. “You knew something was wrong.”
“I push the screen out the window and we both jump out the window and run over towards where the noise is coming from and there’s this girl there and she’s just freaking out,” the other young man, Joe Hoodenpyle, told the station.
Suspect Dalante Jerome Bell, 22, of Anaheim, was brought to Chapman by a family member and subsequently arrested by members of the Orange Police Department and charged with assault with intent to commit rape, WTTV reported. He is being held at the Orange County jail on $100,000 bail, according to jail records.
After a photo of the suspect was released to the public, 22-year-old Dalante Jerome Bell was brought to Chapman University to surrender by a family member and Chapman University notified the Orange Police Department. https://t.co/OhX5Dt5QuQ
— FOX 29 (@FOX29philly) September 29, 2021
“We will not tolerate this type of heinous criminal activity in Orange. We hope the students and staff of Chapman University and residents of Orange can regain a sense of safety knowing this suspect has been arrested and we are confident he will be held to answer on the charges,” Orange Police Chief Dan Adams said, according to WTTV.
A report on the arrest from KABC in Los Angeles is below:
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The university intended to increase security following the attack.
This is a great story that shows both the importance of being prepared to defend yourself and refutes the lie of “toxic masculinity.”
While the monster who tried to assault this girl absolutely got what he deserved, it’s sick to think of what he might have gotten away with had she not been a karate black belt who had trained nearly her whole life to protect herself.
Meanwhile, although she did successfully manage to literally chase off her assailant alone, two young men at the college felt so urgently they needed to come to her aid that they actually broke through their window’s screen to run and help her.
This is the difference between one man’s sickness and criminal depravity and another’s positive, virtuous masculinity.
Thank goodness that this young woman had both the defensive skills to protect herself — and two young men nearby willing to run toward danger to help her. That is what good men do.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
