[INCREDIBLE] Stories of Self Defense: Melissa Bruen and Maurice Osbourne
Melissa Bruen
As a senior at the University of Connecticut, Melissa was walking across campus during Spring Weekend talking on her phone when she was “picked up by the shoulders, pinned up against [a telephone] pole and ‘dry humped’ by a stranger.” And it was only going to get worse:
She hung up the phone, and shoved the man off of her. Melissa is 5’5″. He was around 5’11”.
In her words….
“My, aren’t we feisty tonight,” he said. When he came toward me, I grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him down to the ground. I held onto his shoulders and climbed on top to straddle him. He started thrashing side to side, but I was able to hit him with a closed fist, full force, in the face.
A small crowd had gathered, mostly men. Now they seemed shocked. I was supposed to have been a victim, and I was breaking out of the mold. I hit him in the stomach, while clenching my legs around him to prevent another man from pushing me off. In all, it took three men to pull me off my assailant.”
The man started yelling at Bruen, as if she “were the would-be rapist.” She yelled back at him, “You just assaulted me!” And then, “to anyone who would listen,” she yelled, “He just assaulted me!”
The men who had gathered at the scene decided not to help Bruen, but to teach her a lesson.
Another man, around 6’1″, approached me and said, “You think that was assault?” and he pulled down my tube top, and grabbed my breasts. More men started to cheer. It didn’t matter to the drunken mob that my breasts were being shown or fondled against my will. They were happy to see a topless girl all the same. I punched him in the face, and someone shoved me into a throng of others. I was surrounded, but I kept swinging and hitting until I was able to break free of the circle they had formed and escaped running barefoot.
Maurice Osbourne
Alvaro Denica, 40, was allegedly attacking the 28-year-old woman at about 11:40 a.m. Wednesday on a 3 train approaching the Bergen Street station in Park Slope when Maurice Osborne jumped in to save her, sources said.
“I beat him up,” Osborne told The Post, wearing a bandage for a head cut sustained in the fight. “Once he submitted, I grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him to the police station two blocks away.”
Osborne, who was riding in the second-to-last car, noticed the commotion and ran to help.
“When I looked back, I saw he was on top of her,” Osborne said.
“She said he was about to rape her — that’s when I beat him up.
Pathetic how some “men” didn’t help, but also attacked. This is why we need training like this and the 2nd amendment
The combination of bad parents + wrong acquaintances + alcohol, drugs is getting our streets full of dangerous people. Thank God that we live in a country sustaining the right to self-defense. I’m glad that we have our 2nd Amendment. And I’m also glad that we have people like you, Mr Ross.
Every time I read this story – it infuriates me. I wonder who in my world was that college kid – I hope they have an awful life that meets a grizzly but fitting end.
CAN’T rely on getting help if you get it great but you better take the position that you are on your own and work from there. These stories drive me nuts i can’t believe or maybe just wishful thinking that as a society; we have gone so bad that we would not help out someone being attacked. This could have been a man as easily as a woman, the point is how could you as a human being allow someone to be taken advantage of and not only not help but join the assault. Not sure if they knew the initial attacker or just out of chance they were there? I may not be good enough to go against a mob but i am not going to stand by and watch an assault happen without doing my best to try get them to safety.
There are only a minority of people who are willing to fight back, run towards danger or put themselves in harms way to stop tragedy.
It’s just the way it is.
Our job is to give the people who are willing to step up the best chance of success.
Like!! I blog frequently and I really thank you for your content. The article has truly peaked my interest.