From The Incident
Deedee Neilson's days can be hectic. A senior buyer for a West Coast chain of do-it-yourself home improvement centers, she spends her mornings juggling shipments of garden chemicals, paint supplies and plumbing fixtures. By lunchtime, the 54-year-old mother of three is craving some peace and quiet, and often likes to escape to the solitude of her car.On a warm Monday last August, she picked up a fish sandwich at a fast-food drive-through and headed for a favorite spot. She parked under some trees in a restaurant parking lot a few blocks from her office in Victorville, California, a high-desert city where shade can be hard to come by, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Rolling down the windows a few inches to let in some fresh air, Neilson found a song she liked on the radio and settled back to enjoy her lunch. She had eaten about half of her sandwich when she became peripherally aware of a man running through the parking lot of the building next door. Focusing in, she watched him jump a low wall that separates the two lots, then realized he was running straight toward her.
"He was scary-looking," Neilson recalls, "and he had a wild look in his eyes." She hurried to lock the doors, but she wasn't fast enough. In a split second, the man was there, shouting through her window.
"Get out of the car!" he yelled.
Neilson refused. "Do you know who I am?" the man demanded. Bald and ill-dressed, he wore soiled and baggy jeans held up by an old rope.
"No," Neilson shouted back, "and I am not getting out of my car!"
Yanking open her door, the man grabbed her by the neck and hair. She screamed and honked the horn, instinctively grabbing her purse and the keys from the ignition. They were still in her hand when he hurled her out of the car and onto the pavement, where she landed hard.
Her screams carried across the parking lot and to the loading dock of the building next door, home to the local newspaper, the Daily Press. Two pressmen, Joe Iskandar and Rey Bantug, were outside on a break. Without exchanging a word, they took off running.
When they reached Neilson's car, she was sprawled on the pavement, looking dazed. Her assailant had jumped into the driver's seat and was frantically searching for the keys. Iskandar opened the door, and he and Bantug wrestled the man out. Enraged, the attacker -- 200 pounds and covered in tattoos -- fought back. But even in his cornered panic, he was no match for the two younger, more athletic men.
Bantug, 34, grabbed one arm, while Iskandar, 27, took the other and wrapped it behind the man's back, immobilizing him in a wrestling hold.
By now it was 12:30, and lunchtime was in full swing. Stephanie Purvis, a Social Security claims rep, was heading home to have a quick meal with her kids. Looking out her window, she noticed the skirmish. At first it seemed like the assailant was the victim -- why were two men going after one guy? she wondered. Then she spotted a woman standing there, obviously injured.
Barely coherent, Neilson had a bump the size of a golf ball above her right eyebrow and what looked like a handprint on her neck.
"He tried to attack me," she gasped as Purvis maneuvered her into the shade. Purvis's co-worker Reggie Tillman had stopped, too, and dashed back to the office for an ice pack.
Meanwhile, the attacker was cursing and thrashing wildly while Iskandar sat on top of him to keep the man from running away. "It was a chaotic scene," Purvis recalls.
Handing her his cell phone, Bantug told her to call 911, then ran back to the loading dock to get some zip ties -- sturdy plastic fasteners used to bundle newspapers -- which he figured could secure the man.
With his arms zip-tied tightly behind him, the prisoner looked up at his captors and sneered, "I hope you guys feel good about yourselves -- you just caught one of the most wanted men." Disgusted, they ignored him and waited for the police. Later that afternoon, Iskandar and Bantug were shocked to learn that the man had been telling the truth. He was John Wayne Thomson, 46, a three-time convicted rapist and suspected serial killer. For the last month, he'd eluded authorities in Washington and California. Before grabbing Neilson, police say, he'd attempted another carjacking, threatening a woman with a hammer.
Coincidentally, a picture of Thomson -- but with a full head of hair -- had been printed in the Daily Press over the weekend. He was suspected in connection with the brutal murder of a local man who, police believe, had stopped to assist Thomson, thinking he was a stranded motorist. A murder warrant is also pending in Washington, where police believe he killed a 36-year-old woman, and he is suspected in the disappearance of a 73-year-old man.
He pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, robbery and carjacking, and is being held without bail while awaiting trial.
Given Thomson's brutal pattern, DeeDee Neilson considers herself lucky. She suffered bruises, and her right eye was swollen shut for several days. All minor problems, she believes, considering how differently the story might have ended if good Samaritans had not come to her aid. "The real truth is," she says, "a lot of people would never have done what they did."