Yong-In Tae Kwon Do saved woman in Texas from sexual abuse

A family of Houston-area taekwondo instructors was credited by police with saving a woman from a sexual assault by pinning the alleged attacker to the ground until help arrived.

A 19-year-old man was charged with attempted sexual assault on Thursday, according to Harris County court records. Harris County Sheriff’s officials arrested Alex Robinson when they found him being held by trainers at An’s Yong-In Tae Kwon Do Dojo in Katy Texas, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in an X-post.

According to Gonzalez, instructors at the family-run dojo heard “screaming coming from next door.” When the instructors went to see what was going on, they saw a man attempting to rape a woman, the sheriff added.

After the instructors pulled the woman away from the man, they used their “training and discipline” to stop the attack and force the man to the ground until officers arrived, Gonzalez said.

“Thank you to the Yong-In Dojo for your quick action to protect others,” the sheriff said in the X-post.

Robinson is being held in the Harris County Jail on $100,000 bail. USA TODAY has contacted the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Robinson, but has not received a response.

“It all happened so suddenly”

Simon An, a dojo instructor, told USA TODAY that he and his family noticed the incident when they arrived to open An’s Yong-In Tae Kwon Do at about 3:50 p.m.

An’s father and founder of the dojo, Grandmaster Han An, saw the woman and man “just hugging each other” as he parked his car, said 20-year-old Simon An.

“He didn’t think anything of it,” An said. “He thought it was a joke or they were a couple.”

The family only became suspicious when they heard a first scream, An said. His father realized that the man and woman were together in a secluded back room, and that’s when the family heard a second “horror scream,” An added.

“It was loud,” An said. “I heard it through the building when I was inside (the dojo).”

After hearing the second scream, he, his father, mother, older sister and younger brother “rushed in,” took the woman away from the man and held him on the ground for 10 minutes, An said.

“It all happened so suddenly,” An recalled. “I didn’t know what to think. I thought it wasn’t real.”

What is An’s Yong-In Tae Kwon Do?

Founded in 2007 by Grandmaster Han An, An’s Yong-In Tae Kwon Do is a family-run dojo in Katy, Texas.

According to the dojo’s website, Han An is an eighth-level black belt in taekwondo, a former taekwondo instructor in the South Korean Marine Corps, and a master swordsman.

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