“The word hero is thrown around casually – sports heroes, all sorts of heroes. This guy is a hero,” said John Rowley III when he finally got to meet the law student who stepped in during a vicious attack last week.
Rowley, a partner at
Baker McKenzie in Washington DC, was on his way to meet a friend for dinner earlier this month when a group of teens attacked him – punching, kicking, throwing him to the ground, and pushing him toward the direction of the tracks in the busy Gallery Place-Chinatown metro station. Rowley’s hand even hit a moving train.
The trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor, who has more than 25 years of experience, suffered a broken hand and contusions to his face. Rowley believes that he may have met a more serious fate had George Washington University Law School student Andrew Miller not stepped in.
Rowley initially did not catch Miller’s name and had to appeal through the media for help identifying the student. In a FOX 5 DC report, the two are seen to
have finally met.
“Nobody except one person stopped – that is this guy right here,” Rowley said. “Frankly, while I got some fairly significant injuries, that would have been a whole lot worse because he took some of the punches that were intended for me.”
According to the 23-year-old Miller, the attackers stepped over Rowley and came at him when he stopped to help. He suffered a slight concussion.
“I have come to terms with the fact that violence exists in the world. The question is really more so, ‘What are we going to do about it?’” Miller said.
Rowley said that if there’s a silver lining in the incident, it’s that he got to meet Miller.
“He really is a cut above. I haven’t had too much time to work on him yet, but I am a former federal prosecutor and I am trying to nudge him in that direction,” Rowley said.
“This incident kind of resolidifies my desire to make sure that whatever career that I go into, I am actually making a difference,” Miller said.
Two teens, one aged 15 and another aged 16, face assault charges after they were arrested minutes after the attack at Union Station, where a police officer trailed them.
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