A 13-year-old girl in California who trained in jiu-jitsu used her skills to fend off an attacker, now wanted by police. The girl, whose name has not been released, was walking home from school in Carmel-by-the-Sea on May 6 when a man stepped out from between two vehicles, trying to punch her in the face, sensei Michael Blackburn tells KSBW. "She blocked" then "punched him ... got him headlock, kneed him a couple times, spun him around, threw him on the ground," continues Blackburn, an instructor at the Carmel Youth Center. He adds, "She had stepped on his foot when doing all this and when she threw him to the ground, she broke his ankle."
The girl, who's been taking jiu-jitsu classes for three years, ran home while the man was still on the ground. Police have since released a sketch of the suspect. "We're doing everything we can to figure out who this person is that's responsible for what happened," says Carmel Police Commander Todd Trayer. He says the man was "acting unusual, like potentially under the influence of something or dealing with some other personal issue." The girl hopes her story inspires others to learn self-defense, per KSBW. "I told her, we're proud of her and she did exactly what she was supposed to do," says Blackburn. "A young person taking charge of their life and not letting anything happen to them—it's a sad story but a great ending," adds Carmel Youth Center CEO Keith Padgett, per the Guardian. (More California stories.)
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