A 22-year-old Costa Rican man who confronted another man recording video with his cellphone up the skirt of a female pedestrian was brutally stabbed Wednesday night by two suspects south of the capital, authorities say.
Good Samaritan Gerardo Cruz was attacked on Wednesday night in San Sebastián by assailants who tackled him to the ground and stabbed him, critically wounding him. Witnesses told police that Cruz was on his way to an interview with a local news outlet. None of the victim’s possessions were taken, police said.
Costa Rica’s Public Security Ministry released a statement saying that police are collaborating with judicial officials to investigate the attack, which has left Cruz in critical condition in a local hospital.
Cruz was lauded on social media earlier this week for catching an older man who used a cellphone to discretely film a woman wearing a skirt from behind without her knowledge. On the video that Cruz posted to Facebook, he approaches the woman and informs her that a man has been following her and filming her backside as she walked among several pedestrians on a downtown San José sidewalk. He advised her to call the police before pursuing the aggressor and confronting him. The man threatens Cruz before hailing a taxi. In the video, Cruz laments that no police officers are in the vicinity to catch the suspect.
Police have not yet said if they believe the two events are related.
Cruz’s family said they are not optimistic about his chances for survival after he received open-heart surgery. News of the attack also has gone viral in Costa Rica and abroad, with hundreds of commenters leaving messages of support on Cruz’s Facebook page.
