Left inset: Billy Grooms (WXIX/YouTube). Right inset: Javen Meadows (Highland County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Ohio gas station where cops say Javen Meadows attacked and strangled a woman before running over Billy Grooms after he stepped in to stop him (WXIX/YouTube).
In a tragic and heroic act, an Ohio father of two lost his life after stepping in to save a woman from a violent assault at a gas station. Billy Grooms was fatally struck and dragged by a vehicle in front of his son after he intervened to stop the woman’s ex-boyfriend from strangling her.
Angela Osborn, Grooms’ sister-in-law, recounted the harrowing incident, explaining that Grooms tried to stop the assailant, only for the attacker to retaliate by running him over with a truck. Grooms succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, where he had been placed on life support, according to local Fox affiliate WXIX.
“It’s hard to accept that his life was taken while saving someone else,” Osborn expressed to WXIX, highlighting the family’s struggle to process the loss.
The accused, 22-year-old Javen Meadows, faces charges of strangulation and assault related to the brutal incident on May 31 in Hillsboro. According to court documents cited by WXIX, Meadows allegedly pursued his ex-girlfriend to a Holtfield gas station, where he attacked her after ramming into her vehicle.
Authorities report that Meadows approached his ex-girlfriend’s car, grabbed her throat, and began to strangle her before throwing her to the ground. He continued to physically assault her by kicking and punching, which prompted Grooms to step in.
The woman, in a statement, described Grooms as a hero, acknowledging, “I believe his actions saved my life. I will forever hold gratitude for what he did.” Her words underscore the profound impact of Grooms’ courageous intervention.
Grooms was with his son when he went over to Meadows during the attack and got him off the woman, police and family say.
“That’s who Billy was,” Amy Grooms, Billy Grooms’ wife, tells WXIX. “He wasn’t a very social person, but the people that knew Billy knew he was compassionate; he cared.”
Meadows allegedly hopped in his Ford F-150 pickup truck after Grooms stepped in to intervene and ran Grooms over. “He just went straight towards my husband and hit him and dragged him,” Amy Grooms says.
Grooms suffered multiple broken bones and a severe brain injury. He was airlifted to a local hospital and placed on life support; his family removed him last week.
“We were trying for hope,” Amy Grooms says. “If we could try to intervene to stop the swelling, but then within days, he was declining.”
Grooms’ lifesaving efforts didn’t end at the gas station: He donated his organs to at least five people following his death, WXIX reports.
“If he would have lived through this, I would have said, ‘I love you, babe and you did what was right and what your heart wanted,’” Amy Grooms says. “He would have stepped in for anybody.”
