College Football

Football player rescues unconscious woman from bar ‘rapist’

The biggest block of Cristian Garcia’s life came in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The University of Florida linebacker stepped in to stop a rape that was happening behind the Gainesville restaurant at which he was working security, according to police reports.

The junior walk-on told GatorSports.com that he was taking out the trash at 101 Cantina when he saw a man and a woman behind the dumpster. He initially believed they were having consensual sex until he realized the woman was incapacitated, and he and another restaurant employee intervened.
“At first the guy said she was his girlfriend, but about five seconds later I realized the girl was unconscious,” said Garcia, who played in one game last season. “I turned around and pulled the guy by the shoulder and said, ‘Get off.’ That pretty much ended the situation then. He was intoxicated and attempted to throw some punches, but he slipped and busted his face on the wall.”
The incident was caught on video, according to the report, and clearly pictures the man as he pulls off her clothes and rapes the 19-year-old victim. Gainesville police arrested 34-year-old Christopher Lee Shaw, of Gainesville, on a charge of sexual battery.

Garcia, a Miami native, told a Jacksonville television station that the man’s friends watched the assault take place and did nothing to help.
“I hold strong moral values and I don’t think anyone should be taken advantage of in that kind of way,” Garcia told First Coast News.