Family of Taekwondo teacher rushes to help woman who fears sexual abuse: “My father is strong”

A family of taekwondo instructors are being hailed as heroes after they used years of martial arts training to save a young woman from a sexual assault near their Texas studio.

When the An family heard loud screams coming from the Cricket Phone Shop next to the family’s Yong-in Taekwondo Dojo in Katy, Texas, they immediately rushed to help.

Inside the closed store, they reportedly saw a man lunge at a young woman who tried to fight him off, Simon An told NBC Los Angeles.

The family of five, each of whom holds a fourth-degree black belt, intervened and thwarted the attack. An said it was his father Hong, a taekwondo grandmaster, who pulled the attacker to the ground by his shirt and pinned him down.

“It just happened so suddenly,” An said.

“It was all self-defense. The intruder tried to run away – he scratched, bit, anything he could do.”

His sister Hannah quickly took the victim out of the room while An, his father and his brother held him until the police arrived.

“My father is strong. He expected us to protect him,” said An. “He had a lot of trust in us.”

The Harris County Sheriff’s Department said the woman was saved from an attempted sexual assault thanks to the quick actions and skills of the An family.

“Through their training and discipline, they were able to stop the attack and detain him,” Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Thank you to the Yong-In Dojo for your quick action to protect others.”

Authorities identified the suspect as 19-year-old Alex Robinson and arrested him at the scene.

Robinson was charged with attempted sexual assault in Cypress, Texas, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. At a late-night court hearing, Robinson’s bail was set at $100,000 and a restraining order was requested.

Robinson is also charged with false imprisonment and assault after an investigation revealed that he scratched and bit one of the instructors during the altercation.