Football player helps stop sex assault outside bar

GAINESVILLE — Police say a University of Florida football player helped stop the rape of an unconscious woman behind a trash bin outside a bar.

Cristian Garcia told First Coast News he was taking out the trash Thursday morning from the bar where he works security when he noticed a couple having sex. He first thought it was consensual but then saw the woman was unconscious. Garcia said the man’s friends were watching the assault and did nothing to help. The incident was videotaped.

Garcia said he and another witness walked up and stopped it.

“I turned around and pulled the guy by the shoulder and said ‘Get off.’ That pretty much ended the situation then,” Garcia told the Gainesville Sun. “He was intoxicated and attempted to throw some punches, but he slipped and busted his face on the wall.”

Police later arrested Christopher Shaw, 34, and charged him with sexual battery of the 19-year-old woman. Gainesville police spokesman Ben Tobias confirmed that Garcia and Leroyea Simmons helped stop the rape.