The piercing scream, like a sound from a horror film, triggered taekwondo instructor Simon An to draw on his years of martial arts training. Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, shortly after the doors of his family-owned and -operated studio opened for evening classes, An and his father, mother, older sister and younger brother heard shrieks coming from a neighboring business. The family of five, each with a fourth-degree black belt, run the Yong-in Taekwondo dojo in Katy, Texas, outside Houston.
An’s sister, Hannah, grabbed the girl and rushed her out of the room while An and his brother helped subdue the attacker. “It just happened so sudden,” said An, who has been practicing taekwondo for 16 years. “It was all self defense. The intruder was trying to run away — scratching, biting, anything he could do.” But An’s dad, a taekwondo grand master, held down the attacker for 10 minutes until law enforcement arrived, he said. “My dad is strong. He expected us to protect him,” An said.