2 Men Called Heroes After Catching Suspect in Sexual Attack, Robbery : Samaritans: A lawyer and a Marine witness an assault in Fullerton and chase down a 15-year-old. Police say their actions saved the victim’s life.

FULLERTON —  A Fountain Valley attorney and a Fullerton Marine are being praised as heroes for saving a woman’s life and capturing a youth who allegedly tried to rape her at knifepoint last week.

Skip Marshall, who practices law in Los Angeles, and Cpl. Ollie James Wilson Jr. are credited with scaring away a 15-year-old boy Friday morning as he allegedly assaulted a 33-year-old woman in a parking lot.

Brandishing a baseball bat and a crowbar, the two men chased the youth down side streets, over a fence and through an apartment complex before capturing him for police.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the victim would have been killed had it not been for the intervention of these two men,” said Fullerton Police Sgt. Don Kimbro.

For Marshall, the drama began about 8:30 a.m. Friday as he searched for a parking spot at an Orange County Transit District park-and-ride facility at 3000 W. Orangethorpe Ave. He noticed a woman lying on the pavement between two cars with a youth hovering over her.

“The very first thought I had was that someone was having a heart attack,” the 38-year-old former firefighter said from his home Saturday. “But when I looked, the guy wasn’t in a CPR position, and I saw (the woman’s) papers and files scattered on the ground.”

After hurriedly telling a bus driver at the terminal to call authorities, Marshall drove back to the lot and grabbed a baseball bat from his trunk. As he approached, however, the attacker held the knife to the woman’s throat.

Marshall said he then jumped back in his car and yelled, “I’m leaving--don’t hurt her!” But in a ploy to frighten the youth he bluffed: “You better run right now because the police are coming.”

The youth jumped up and fled, he recalled.

Still holding the bat, Marshall gave chase and was joined by Wilson, wielding a crowbar, who had seen what was going on while dropping off his 11-year-old son at a nearby school.

Both men--one in a suit, the other in camouflage fatigues--raced down Orangethorpe Avenue after the suspect. Scaling a chain-link fence, the youth darted through an apartment complex and led his pursuers onto Montana Avenue in Buena Park.

Marshall and Wilson then flagged down Dave Elseroad, a Buena Park public works inspector, and in Elseroad’s truck they overtook the boy at Dale Street. The youth gave up without a fight.

“I told him, ‘Lay on your face--I don’t want to look at you,’ ” Wilson recalled.

Anthony Smith of Garden Grove, a 26-year-old private investigator, joined the group and snapped a pair of handcuffs on the boy.

The Compton youth, who was not identified because of his age, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, attempted rape, rape with a foreign object and armed robbery, police said.

The victim, who is from Orange, was treated at St. Jude Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Fullerton and released. Police said she had been beaten and her wristwatch was taken.

On Saturday, her rescuers dismissed praise for their actions.

“To me, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to help,” said Marshall, who practices government contract law. “If I’d driven away and not done anything, I don’t know how I could’ve faced myself in the mirror.”

Wilson, a 30-year-old computer data analyst at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, was equally modest.

“I don’t actually feel it was heroic or anything,” he said. “It was just a situation where I had the opportunity to help someone out. I believe you help people whenever you can because you never know when you’re going to need help yourself.”

Kimbro said the Police Department will seek commendations for the four men.