Florida football player helps stop sexual assault

A Florida Gators walk-on turned hero early Thursday morning when he stopped a sexual assault behind a Gainesville bar, according to police.

Cristian Garcia, a fourth-year junior from Miami, works security at a Gainesville establishment, Cantina 101. At around 2:20 a.m. Thursday he was taking out garbage when he noticed a man and woman having sex.

The report states Garcia soon noticed the 19-year-old woman was unconscious.

“I knew there was no way she could be giving consent,” Garcia told First Coast News.

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Gainesville Police later would arrest Christopher Lee Shaw, whom Garcia helped identify, and charged him with sexual battery.

Garcia told police Shaw’s friends were watching the assault take place, leading Garcia to grab Shaw’s shoulders and tell him stop. Shaw became violent and threw a few punches before he ran off.

“I hold strong moral values and I don’t think anyone should be taken advantage of in that kind of way,” Garcia told First Coast News.

Interviewed later at the hospital, the unidentified woman told GPD she did not consent to having sex with the man. According to the report, she tried to push him away “but was physically helpless because she was going in and out of consciousness due to her level of intoxication.”

Garcia has appeared in one game for the Gators, recording two assisted tackles during the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl loss to Michigan.

egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

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