Two men are being praised as heroes for coming to the rescue of a female California Highway Patrol officer who was being attacked by an aggressive driver.
Greg Bunting, a 52-year-old motorcycle mechanic and Joel Jones, 61-year-old former linebacker, and former cop witnessed a terrifying scene unfold right in front of them, and they knew they had no choice but to leap into action.
The incident happened around 8:30 Saturday morning.
Joel Jones was driving down the highway with his wife, Annalisa, when he noticed a driver weaving in and out of traffic. The driver, later identified as Gary Coslovich, smashed into two cars at high speeds, causing them to spin out. As Jones watched, a highway patrol officer pulled over the driver — who apparently snapped, Fox News reported.
Witnesses say the suspect was actually reaching for the officers’s gun when the two men, strangers to each other, came to the officer’s aid, according to Fox News reports.
“[The suspect] punched her, hit her repeatedly, beat her to the ground and started stomping her,” said Joel Jones, a retired San Francisco County sheriff’s deputy who played football for Drake University.
His wife was equally stunned, and she had a hard time processing exactly what was going on.
“I saw her crawling and then I saw her trying to get up and so I said ‘is this really happening?’” she said.
Greg Bunting was also driving by at the same time, and he also knew he had little choice but to jump in and help. He noted that “it’s hard to see a woman hit by a man. To see that was – uh, there’s no words to describe it except for it was sick.”
The pair was able to subdue the suspect and hold him until law enforcement backup arrived. Coslovich is now facing charges of assault and battery, and he’ll have to answer for his actions in court at a future date. Jones and Bunting are being lauded as heroes, but they are both defraying credit for jumping into action as they did.
“I think God puts us in places for a reason,” Bunting, a former youth minister, said. “We’re no superheroes, but when it comes to – it’s time to help out. Let’s do this!”
“I’m no hero, I’m a servant,” added Jones, a retired deputy. “I’m no hero no more than anybody else.”
The officer wound up being treated for moderate injuries, but this could have turned out much worse if this pair of Good Samaritans didn’t leap into action when they did. Despite the pair’s humility in the wake of their heroism, the Solano County CHP will honor them for their actions at a future date.
Article Sources: All That News, FoxNews Video Credit: KTVU News
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