Video shows a selfless man step in to save a child from a homeless woman’s unprovoked ambush and get slashed in the face for his trouble.
John Irias was parking his car when when he saw a homeless woman randomly go after a young girl walking to school on the morning of May 26 in Los Angeles.
In the video, which was captured by CCTV, the homeless woman can be seen charging and tackling her to the ground.
That’s when Irias, a security guard who was off-duty at the time, can be seen taking action.
“I saw the homeless person just passed me str*ke the little girl in the face,” he detailed. “That’s when I ran over to help.”
Irias, who is a father of a young girl himself, said that his parental instincts caused him to step in.
As he was running over, he could see that the homeless woman was wielding an unknown object, but charged at her anyway.
“The homeless person proceeded to take out a weap*n and before I could find out what that was, I went for a take down and I was sl*shed in the face.”
Los Angeles sunny skies turned out to be Irias’ saving grace, because he was wearing shades that ended up protecting him.
“Luckily I was wearing my glasses and when she sl*shed my face my glasses actually helped save my eyeballs,” he told FOXLA.
Despite his injury, Irias managed to keep the homeless woman restrained, and was joined by his friend Victor Camarena, who rushed over to help.
“By that time, John already has the suspect on the floor,” Camarena told KTLA in an interview.
“He’s gushing bl**d from the side of his face, asking me if it’s bad. I’m like, ‘It’s pretty bad bro.’”
Irias stayed on top of the attacker until police arrived to take her into custody for assault with a deadly object.
The little girl was shaken from the incident but continued on her way to school. Irias, who noted the girl was Latino, said that thee att*ck was racially motivated.
“[The homeless woman] was shouting racial sl*rs. She was saying like ‘I’m tired of you Hispanic people.’ So it was just a random att*ck, just a h*teful crime,” he remarked.
Camarena said that if the morning’s mishaps, which included losing his car keys and Irias’ late arrival to his house, didn’t happen exactly as they had, the events that unfolded could have been grave.
“God only knows what could have happened to that little girl,” he stated.
Camarena took Irias, who has no regrets about getting injured, to the hospital to get stitches.
“There should be more people who should stand up to criminals,” Irias told a reporter.
“He’s a hero,” Camerena summed up.
