How Anthony saved girl from attack
ANTHONY Smith is the kind of man Toowoomba should be proud to count among its own.
Almost four years ago, Mr Smith, at just 17 years old, put aside any thought of his own safety and helped save the life of a young girl from a depraved attacker.
It left Mr Smith with permanent physical damage, a long scar on his upper left arm, but also with a desire to always help his community when he can.
The details of that day of the Rosewood Skate Park attack are still vivid in his mind. But even now when he thinks of the danger he put himself in, there’s little he would change.
Except perhaps realising sooner he’d been stabbed and blocking the knife attack that pierced his good friend Sean Brock’s lung as they wrestled the man from the 15-year-old girl.
“It was a bit of a cyclone,” Mr Smith said of that day.
Mr Smith was awarded an Australian Bravery Award yesterday.
He and Mr Brock had been skating at the park that afternoon when they heard a woman’s screams from behind the ramps.
Brushing it aside, it wasn’t until the second round of screams that they investigated, finding a man with his hands around a girl’s throat, pinning her to the ground.
“We knew we had to do something there,” Mr Smith said.
“Sean had gone in straight away, tackled him off her and this was when it all happened very fast.
“The man turned Sean over and I thought (the man) punched him - we didn’t know he had a knife yet.”
Mr Smith armed himself with his skateboard - the only thing at hand - and hit the attacker across his back, forcing him from his best mate and turning his attentions towards him.
Stumbling backwards, Mr Smith raised his arm in defence of the man converging on him.
While a whirlwind, Mr Smith and Mr Brock’s actions earned them an Australian Bravery Medal.
“I got my arm in the way to brace for the punch, and lucky I did because it was a knife,” Mr Smith recalled.
“Straight away I stumbled back a bit and didn’t really know what happened (but) felt my arm go numb.”
Two days in hospital saw him back on his feet and to his best friend’s side in the intensive care unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
The attacker was later arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm.
Mr Smith has never spoken to the young girl from that day but wishes her well.
He said if history repeated itself, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
“I guess I really have my mum to thank for that,” he said.
“I’ve been raised in a way where girls and guys alike, but especially girls, that if they’re in danger, you help them.
“I grew up in a very rough place with a lot of fights and things happening.
“You sort of learn that your own safety is one thing but making another person safe is another thing entirely.
“It’s rewarding. You feel like you have actually helped people and I’ve always been that way.
“I just look back on that day and think, what if Sean and I weren’t there? What would have happened?”
Mr Smith moved with his family to Toowoomba and yesterday was announced as a recipient of a Bravery Medal, recognising acts of bravery in hazardous circumstances.
We knew we had to do something there.
— Anthony Smith