Jogger says she could have been killed by teen accused in her rape

ATLANTA — We are hearing from a woman who survived a sexual assault and the good Samaritan who saved her.

Channel 2's Michael Seiden spoke with the survivor Tuesday.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said it's a miracle she's still alive.

“It was just a vicious attack, and I think he would’ve killed me, eventually. I probably had a few more minutes left in me," she said. “I’m still in shock. It’s only been a couple of days. I would never expect something like that to happen, especially at 10 o’clock in the morning.”

She shared her story with Channel 2 Action News after police said D'Shawn Garrison, 17, attacked her while she was jogging in her northwest Atlanta neighborhood Thursday morning.

“He grabbed me by the hair and I bent over and that’s when he started punching me,” the victim said.

“He punched you multiple times?” Seiden asked.

“Many, many times. He punched me many times. He knocked me out a few times and then he choked me a number of times," the victim said.

The details of what happened next were too graphic to tell.

“I was screaming at the top of my lungs," the victim said.

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She said the teen, who had just bonded out of jail on a theft charge two days earlier, sexually assaulted her for 20 minutes before help arrived.

Jamal Wheeler saw what was happening and jumped in to help the victim.

“I just feel like I stopped him from doing more,” Wheeler said. “He tried to run to the scooter and that’s when the victim, she grabbed the back of the scooter and he was literally getting on the scooter and I had to grab him so he wouldn’t get anywhere.”

“Oh gosh!" the victim said. "He saved my life. He says he’s not a hero, but he actually saved my life."

“Like I said, I don’t feel like a hero, but I do feel like I saved her from getting hurt,” Wheeler said.

Since Seiden broke the story Friday, he has been digging into the teen's violent criminal past, which includes more than a dozen arrests, including an armed robbery offense in 2014.

On Tuesday night, Seiden spoke with the chief judge for Fulton County Superior Court, who explained why the teen was out on bond. Right now, he said, judges and prosecutors don't have access to juvenile criminal records.

So, when Garrison, along with his mother, appeared in front of a judge on a theft charge, the judge treated him as a first-time adult offender.

Cox Media Group