Good Samaritan helps thwart sexual assault in New Jersey
MOUNT LAUREL TOWNSHIP, New Jersey -- A good Samaritan is being hailed as a hero after he saved a woman from an attempted sexual assault in New Jersey.
John Bishop normally doesn't take I-295 to Route 73 home, but he was on the highway around 3 p.m. last Thursday because he had to run an errand. And just as he was about to merge, something caught his eye.
"I saw arms and black hair," he said. "He just grabbed her and yanked her forcefully backwards. The moment she screamed, she was right next to my truck window."
Bishop knew he could call 911 and wait for help, running the risk it would be too late, or he could act immediately and risk his own life.
He chose to act.
"I yelled, and I said, 'Hey get off of her!'" he said. "And then he started getting up."
After parking on the shoulder, Bishop ran into the woods after the suspect, identified as Donald Cramer, Jr., and saw him on top of the victim.
He intervened, triggering a physical altercation between him and Cramer, who state police say was armed.
"I was thinking, 'It's either going to be him or me, and it's not going to be me,'" Bishop said. "He hit the rail with his stomach, and I just grabbed him by the back of his pants and flipped him over the street and jumped on him."
Out near the busy highway, three firemen passing by stopped to help Bishop hold Cramer down until police arrived.
The victim, shaken by the encounter, had apparently missed her stop and was walking back to her car after getting off at the wrong bus stop.
"I think she would have been raped or killed (if I hadn't intervened)," Bishop said. "The big man put me there for some reason."
Still, Bishop said he doesn't like being hailed a hero.
"The cops are the heroes," he said. "I just helped somebody out."
Cramer is charged with attempted sexual assault, among other offenses.
----------
