http://www.news-press.com/news/today/010319hero.html
Man rescues his neighbor from attacker Intruder break-in awakens woman
By SHARON TURCO, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CAPE CORAL — Richard Peppers didn’t hesitate when he saw a man beating and
raping his neighbor — he pulled out his Ruger .357 Magnum revolver and
ordered him to stop.
The threat of Peppers’ large frame and scruffy beard scared Rolando Mota
off, saving his neighbor’s life, said Lt. Bill Rivers of the Cape Coral
Police Department.
“A few more blunt traumas to the head would have put her out,” Rivers said.
“If he didn’t get involved the way he did, that woman would have been in a
lot worse shape.”
Authorities say the 45-year-old Cape Coral woman was severely beaten when
Mota broke into her Patterson Road house as she slept at 2:50 a.m. Saturday,
molested her and then beat her unconscious.
Peppers, 54, was awake, and thought the woman’s cries for help were from a
neighbor’s television.
As soon as he stepped outside the front door of his Alabor Lane house he
knew that the cries were real. His neighbor was screaming, “Help me, I’m
being raped. Somebody’s trying to kill me.”
Peppers, who said he has a concealed weapon’s permit, ran back through his
house, grabbed his gun pouch and headed out the back door toward the sounds
of the victim’s screams.
Peppers did not know her.
As soon as he flipped on his backyard light, Peppers saw Mota using one hand
to hold the naked woman’s hair, and the other to punch her, he said. They
were just 50 feet away.
Mota ran, with Peppers close behind, stopping only to cover to the woman
with the red, white and blue cover that had been protecting his
Harley-Davidson.
Other neighbors came to the woman’s aid as Peppers chased the attacker.
Ultimately it was Cape Coral police K-9s that sniffed Mota out of his hiding
place at another neighbor’s house.
“If I had had a clear shot, I would have shot him,” Peppers said.
Mota beat the victim so badly, Peppers described her injuries as looking
like hamburger meat.
Officers say she does not know Mota.
The woman was treated at Lee Memorial Hospital and released Sunday. She did
not answer a knock at her door seeking comment.
Officers arrested Mota, 20, of 1130 Patterson Road, on charges of burglary
with a person present, battery and sexual battery with force.
He is being held in the Lee County Jail without bail.
With talk of the attack still fresh in the middle-class neighborhood mixed
with rental trailers and homes, Peppers doesn’t want to be called a hero.
“It’s important to care,” Peppers said. “I would want someone to do the same
thing if it had been my wife.”
Everybody who got involved should be commended, Rivers said.
“When communities get involved and stand up against the criminal element,
everybody wins,” he said.
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