16 year old intervened in violent altercation

Photo: Contributed

A Parksville teen is being called a hero for intervening in a violent situation.

Sara Picard, 16, told CTV News Vancouver Island she witnessed a violent altercation along Bay Street at roughly 2:45 p.m.

Picard was walking through the area when she saw a man trying to put a woman into a car.

"She was screaming and yelling and it looked like something out of a movie at first," said the teen.

Picard intervened and told the man to let the woman go, and when she pushed the man he pulled out a knife.

The man told Picard to “back up” so she stepped back and called police.

"I watched the whole thing," says Picard. "I didn't know if he was going to stab the woman, and then I would need to tell that to the police."

The man eventually turned the knife on himself and later died in hospital.

While many are praising Picard for her bravery, the Parksville teen says that she simply thought it was the right thing to do.

"For me it doesn’t really feel like I'm a hero, it feels like I'm just a citizen who's doing what they're supposed to do," says Picard. "That's what you're taught, if you see something going on you're supposed to help."

- with files from CTV News