Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson, the Swedish students who happened upon Brock Turner while he was attacking a young woman in Stanford University, have recalled the night they came to her rescue.
Last weekend, a deeply moving letter that the woman read out in court to her attacker, Brock Turner, went viral. The young woman was sexually assaulted by Turner behind a dumpster outside a fraternity house. He was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault, but sentenced to just six months in prison.
In the letter the woman read out, she mentioned two “heroes” who intercepted the attack and held down Turner while the police were called. In her letter she said:
“Thank you to the two men who saved me, who I have yet to meet. I sleep with two bicycles that I drew taped above my bed to remind myself there are heroes in this story. That we are looking out for one another. To have known all of these people, to have felt their protection and love, is something I will never forget.”
Now, 18 months later, those two guys, Arndt and Jonsson, are recalling the night’s events.
BuzzFeed picked up and translated an interview the pair gave with the Swedish press. They said:
“We saw that she was not moving, while he was moving a lot. So we stopped and thought, ‘This is very strange’. When he got up we saw that she still wasn’t moving at all, so we walked up and asked something like, ‘What are you doing?’”
At this point, Turner decided to run away, but Jonsson followed after and tackled him to the ground. They then restrained him, called the police, and held him down until the authorities arrived.
Arndt said the victim “lay perfectly still” as all this was happening.
Jonsson added that he won’t be commenting on the trial but has asked everyone to read her letter, saying: “To me it is unique in its form, and comes as close as you can possibly get to putting words on an experience that words cannot describe.”
Lead image via BuzzFeed.
