FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - In the midst of spring break festivities in downtown Fort Lauderdale, two women said they noticed a woman struggling to fend off an attacker, and their actions have them being hailed as heroes.
Zuri Dacosta and Kayla Hercules have been friends for seven years after they met at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County.
“We had a lot of leadership development training with the Boys and Girls Clubs, and over the years, it just allowed us to have the confidence to handle certain situations,” said Dacosta.
The best friends attend college and work as security guards in their free time. They said their training helped them when they saw a 20-year-old woman in trouble at around midnight on March 14.
“We were coming from the parking garage off Las Olas,” said Dacosta.
The good Samaritans said they saw the woman with an older and larger man.
“We noticed that things had started to get uncomfortable for the female. She’s being pinned against the wall; she’s being tussled on the ground,” said Dacosta.
“My intuition was, something was wrong. They were both drunk, and he was just basically pushing her on the ground,” said Hercules. “Once we heard her say, ‘Stop, stop, stop,’ we knew something was wrong.”
Dacosta and Hercules said they ran toward the couple, who were now in an open field off Las Olas Boulevard.
The man who, the good Samaritans said, was in his late 20s, ran off after he saw them.
Dacosta and Hercules said they called police.
“The incident was reported to police. They gave a suspect description,” said Fort Lauderdale Police detective Ali Adamson. “Because of the circumstances of the case, it was classified as a battery report. Our Special Victims Unit is aware of this.”
Dacosta said the victim was visiting Fort Lauderdale for spring break from Purdue University in Indiana.
“She had no idea who he was. She was only 20 years old, and she had gotten disconnected from her friends,” she said.
Body camera footage showed the moment an officer asked the student if she needed help. Hercules and Dacosta could be seen standing next to her.
“Do you need any medical attention?” the officer said.
“No, I’m fine,” said the student, visibly shaken.
“No fire rescue or anything like that?” the officer said.
“No. I’m fine, I’m fine,” said the student.
Dacosta and Hercules made sure the college student was safe and reunited with her friends before they left.
Days later, Dacosta said, they received a phone call from the student’s mother.
“It’s the mom expressing how we were heroes and that we were angels to be able to take charge in a moment where dozens of people just didn’t,” she said.
Hercules wears an angel around her neck. However, this time, she and her best friend were the ones doing the protecting.
Police said the man got away, but it’s clear Dacosta and Hercules were able to defuse a charged situation.
“They saw something that just didn’t look right to them, and they took action, and that action likely prevented this victim from being further victimized,” said Adamson.
The student’s mother is so grateful for Dacosta and Hercules that she wrote a note to the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County, and she made a contribution in the good Samaritans’ honor.
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