Editor’s note: This story contains a description of sexual assault.
A man leaving an early morning showing of the new Spider-Man movie at the AMC Georgetown theater sprang into action to help a woman yelling for help from the bushes in the nearby waterfront park.
He told News4 he encountered what appeared to be a sexual assault.
“I heard a cry for help over and over, repeated,” Zamilan, the good Samaritan, told News4.
He said he had just left the movie about 4:30 a.m. He began riding his electric unicycle home to Arlington when he heard a woman crying out for help in Georgetown Waterfront Park.
“And it turned out to be a man who pulled a woman out of her sleep while she was experiencing homelessness on the monument and dragged her towards the bushes right by the water where he’d be a little more safe,” Zamilan said.
He said he tried to scare off the man while recording with his phone to get an image of him in case police needed a description.
“He started approaching me while I had the video on, so I had to cut it, get some distance between me and him, and then I still hovered around the area, which gave her a chance to get up, get towards safety, towards the main road,” Zamilan said.
He called 911 and stayed with the woman.
“She was experiencing homelessness for a couple days,” Zamilan said. “She had her license stolen. She had ended her lease and was moving out, but she ended up breaking her wrist. So she was an injured woman who was experiencing a hard time.”
Detectives from U.S. Park Police were called to the scene by D.C. police. They taped off an extensive area of the park while they conducted an investigation.
In a statement to News4, a Park Police spokesperson said a man has been taken into custody. It has not been announced what charges that man is facing.
“I left ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ right before that Marvel iconic kind of post-credit scene; [it] felt like a calling to just leave a little early and just appreciate the city I grew up in, and then I just ended up being able to help another person in need,” Zamilan said.
