Earlier this month, an armed robber accosted a woman in Houston, Texas in broad daylight as she was on her way to her vehicle outside a check-cashing business. The suspect demanded that the woman hand over her car keys to him and later went on to choke her.
A brave 73-year-old man, Simon Mancilla Sr., a grandfather to 11 kids showed up at the scene in his truck and told the suspect “don’t make a problem.”
The armed robber then turned to Mancilla and yanked the old man out of his truck and climbed inside, attempting to carjack Mancilla’s 2011 GMC SIERRA 1500 pickup truck. He hit Mancilla multiple times in the head with his pistol. Severely wounded, from the gun strokes, the grandfather required immediate medical attention, but despite his wounding and bleeding, he returned multiple punches to the armed suspect attempting to carjack his vehicle.
Two bystanders reportedly jumped in to help Mancilla but the brave grandfather had single-handedly managed to hurt the armed suspect. Mancilla’s son told local news, KOHU 11 that at the time, his father’s eyes were covered in blood, and “he couldn’t see anyone.”
Scared of attracting bystanders’ attention and potential intervention, and suffering injury from Mancilla’s blind punches, the suspect fled the scene in the carjacked pickup truck, and almost ran-over bystanders.
Putting his own life at risk, this courageous grandfather was successfully able to protect the helpless woman unfortunately losing his pickup truck in the process.
“I don’t have any choice,” said Mancilla, concerning his sense of obligation to intervene.
The Houston Police Department has released a statement requesting citizen’s help with identifying the suspect and has offered a $5,000 cash reward for any information that leads to the charging and or arrest of the suspect.
The incident took place in Houston, under Democrat Mayor Sylvester Turner’s leadership where only 14% of carjackings since 2019 have reportedly resulted in arrests. And just last year, there were 1,216 carjackings in Houston, a 10% increase from 2020 and 20% from 2019.
The Houston Police Department’s Senior Officer from Robbery Division told KOHU 11 that the uptick in violent crimes in the city is a “disturbing trend and it bothers all of us.”
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