As a man attempted to assault a woman on a Florida beach, the would-be victim began to scream. Thankfully, her terror drew the attention of two good Samaritans.
Chris Kersey and Paul Alterio were in Gulfport, Florida, for work. They were sleeping at a hotel in Gulfport Beach when they were awakened just before 3:30 am on a Monday. It was one of the men’s wives, and she said she had heard screaming coming from the direction of the beach. Without hesitation, the two men immediately ran outside, where they also heard a woman’s screams, prompting them to spring into action.
The two men headed toward the sounds of distress, which led them to one of the volleyball courts near the Gulfport Casino. There, they discovered a man standing up with his pants down after he had just been on top of a woman, attempting to sexually assault her. As Chris ran towards the victim, only identified as a 47-year-old woman, Paul ran after the suspect, who was attempting to flee after being spotted by the two men.
Speaking with WFLA, Paul Alterio described the moment that he and Chris Kersey rushed out to find what appeared to be a man sexually assaulting a woman.
“We heard the screaming immediately, [and] we both took off, at which we seen [sic] the gentleman actually standing up, pulling his pants up at the time and start running,” Paul Alterio recalled. “I caught up to him and was basically able to visualize everything, and he jumped the fence, at which time, they were yelling, ‘Stop’ because we didn’t know if he had a weapon or anything.”
Meanwhile, Chris’s attention was on the woman whom the suspect, later identified by police as 24-year-old Christopher Williams, had been assaulting.
“He had her in a choke hold, so when she came up, she was talking gibberish. I said, ‘Are you foreign? Do you speak English?’ And she started speaking English. I think he had her in such a tight hold that he cut her oxygen off, and it made her delirious,” Chris Kersey said, describing the moment he reached the victim.
According to the victim, she had been relaxing at a pavilion on the beach while her friend was fishing nearby when she was approached by the suspect, who was unknown to her at the time. Williams allegedly tried to strike up a conversation with her, but since she didn’t know him, she tried to leave, WFLA reported. Unfortunately, that’s when Williams allegedly grabbed her, told her he was going to have sex with her, and covered her mouth with his hand as he pushed her down onto the ground.
Although the two men chased Christopher Williams off, he didn’t get far. According to Sergeant Jesse Kellington, who was the patrol Sergeant on shift, one of their K-9 officers found Williams a few blocks over after calls came in to report the incident. Williams was arrested, charged with attempted sexual battery, and booked into jail with his bond set at $500,000.
“Within 10 minutes of the call, we had him within custody,” Kellington said, adding that the incident was unusual. “Our beachfront is pretty laid back. There’s an ordinance where the beachfront itself is closed from midnight to 4 a.m., and officers are out there checking it pretty routinely throughout the night.”
As for the men who jumped into action to help the woman, the Gulfport police said that was also not the norm. Although people are good about calling them when something isn’t right, it’s rare to see people jumping in to help, the police said. What’s more, Chris Kersey and Paul Alterio did so, not knowing what they might encounter, which received praise from the police.
“The fact that they ran into that not knowing if the suspect was armed or if they were putting themselves at risk because somebody was in desperate need of help. My hats off to them,” Sergeant Jesse Kellington said.
Of course, Chris Kersey and Paul Alterio were hailed as heroes for stopping the sexual assault, but both men seemingly downplayed their heroics, saying they were glad they were in the right place at the right time and that they were simply doing what they would want others to do if their loved ones were in danger.
“Definitely proud that we were able to stop that situation,” Paul Alterio said with Chris Kersey adding, ” I have two daughters, and if my daughters were in that situation, I would want someone to do the same thing,” according to The Blaze.
Not only were the good Samaritans hailed as heroes after rushing to the woman’s rescue, but they also earned the label “angel” from the 47-year-old woman whom they had protected by chasing off her attacker, according to WFLA.
“She actually got my number and put me in her phone as ‘angel,'” Paul Alterio admitted.
Indeed, the fate of the woman who was attacked on Gulfport Beach could have had a different outcome if Chris Kersey and Paul Alterio hadn’t jumped in to help her when they did. So, whether you call them angels, heroes, or good Samaritans, the world needs more guys like these two who send punks like Christopher Williams running scared.
