Pedicab Hero To Be Honored By Austin Police With Distinguished Service Citation

AUSTIN, TX — Heroes take many shapes, and they don't need a cape.

Luis Palos is such a hero. On Thursday, the pedicab driver is scheduled to receive a Distinguished Service citation after stopping a sexual assault and helping to identify the suspect.

While working as a pedicab driver on May 19, Palos heard a woman groaning in pain at around 1 a.m. near the federal courthouse on 4th Street. He stopped his pedicab and witnessed a male sexually a woman who appeared to be unconscious. Palos asked the suspect as to his relationship with the woman, prompting the man to say she was his girlfriend but unable to provide her name.

Growing suspicious, Palos persuaded the suspect to help him load the victim into his pedicab, ostensibly to give them both a ride. As Palos headed east on 4th Street with both victim and suspect in his pedicab, the man leaped out of the pedicab and took off running. Palos chased the man around the courthouse while asking passersby to call 911.

That night, Palos last saw the suspect jump into a creek bed at 4th and Rio Grande streets, police said. Arriving officers searched the area and found a wallet containing an identification card the suspect dropped during his flight. Palos was able to later identify the suspect in a photo lineup, enabling police to effect an arrest.

Because of Palos' intervention, Said Yarrow, 19, was arreseted.

Police will honor Palos on Thursday at 2 p.m. at the the APD Violent Crimes II meeting room at 4201 Ed Bluestein Boulevard.

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