Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub, who these days works as everything from an analyst to a stand-up comic to a podcast host, is also being lauded as a hero this week.
As reported by TMZ, Schaub helped rescue three children who were victims of a fatal car wreck on the Los Angeles freeway on August 12, although the fighter’s involvement was not made public until recently.
The children’s mother, Aimee García, 26, was killed in the crash, which appears to have been caused deliberately by her husband, since charged with murder.
Speaking on his podcast, The Fighter and the Kid, Schaub recalled nearly passing the accident by, only to hear a child calling for help. That child was sitting on top of the vehicle. Three more were inside.
With “debris everywhere,” and after witnessing a man crossing the freeway also being hit, Schaub approached the damaged vehicle, only to find a horror scene awaiting him.
“The car is all f*cking mangled. There’s one other guy there who’s on the scene, maybe it’s the truck driver, I’m not sure. But me and him are the first on the scene. And there’s two kids, and — I’m going to try this without crying — there’s a bigger kid who keeps going “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die.”
Reassuring the child, Schaub tried to wrench the door open, but with the car totalled, it was jammed. Instead, he had to break a window, and pulled the larger child out. A younger child came next.
The worst came when Schaub had to pull a third child from the front seat. “In the front is a lady who passed away — brain matter everywhere, blood everywhere. And the kid’s going, ‘Mama, mama!’ I go, ‘Bubba, look at me. Look at me, don’t look over there,’” Schaub recalled. “He was so young, it would’ve completely f*cked him up. I look at the guy and go, ‘Get a blanket, cover his mom.’
“A lady walks up. I don’t know where she came from,” Schaub continued. “I go, ‘take these two kids and run that way, run away from the car.’ She goes, ‘Well, I think it’s better to go that way.’ And I go, ‘Don’t go that way. Because the mom’s there, and they can’t see the mom. Go that way.'” At that point, Schaub returned to his own car and left the scene, concerned for the safety of himself and his girlfriend due to passing traffic, later calling in and offering to serve as a witness.
L.A. Police later told Schaub that the man he had seen hit on the road was the father, who had told the children that “we’re all going to heaven today.” The man, Cesar Iban Torres, has since been charged with one count of murder, four counts of attempted murder, assault, and resisting arrest, according to ABC 7 Eyewitness News.
Schaub, meanwhile, has offered to help pay for the funeral expenses. A GoFund Me campaign has been set up by the victim’s family. It has already surpassed its goal.
