Sixteen-year-old Sara Picard had a terrifying encounter in Parksville last Thursday. She was walking along Bay Avenue near Temple Street when she saw a man trying to force a woman into a van against her will.
“I just knew that I had to step in and help. That was the most important thing to me,” Picard said.
“And she was screaming and crying for help so I ran up and pushed the man off of her and said what are you doing?” explained Picard. “And then he pulled out a knife, a big hunting knife, probably eight inches and told me to back up.”
She then called 911 as the man and woman continued to argue in a domestic dispute.
But what happened next still haunts Sara Picard.
“He said are ‘you happy?’ and then he took the knife and stabbed himself in the heart,” added Picard.
The self-inflicted stab wound was fatal.
“He fell to the ground right away and I told the woman to go to a building, you know just in case he got back up and yeah at the time I did think right away that it was going to be fatal,” she said.
The woman and her family are giving Sara permission to speak with CHEK News and many people are calling Sara a hero for stepping into a dangerous situation and possibly saving the woman’s life.
“She won’t let me call her a hero but I think it was a really brave and selfless act,” said her friend Grace Allen.
Sara says there were people in the area and driving by who did nothing.
“I think that sometimes people think they should mind their own business but when you see a woman screaming and a man trying to put her in a van you definitely shouldn’t,” she added.
She says she’s speaking with us to help promote two fundraisers for the woman and her family. One is a GoFundMe and the other is an effort to provide meals to the family.
Ultimately she says she feels good about doing the right thing.
“I’m just so thankful that I was there at that moment and I’m thankful that I was able to step in without getting hurt and I was very thankful that she didn’t get hurt,” said Picard.
Dean Stoltz
