SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Mid-South self-defense instructors are even more motivated to help those learning in their classes. It comes after what Germantown police described as an attempted kidnapping of a woman Friday night as she got into her car at The Shops of Saddle Creek.
The woman got away - thanks in part to a bystander who helped break it up - but nerves remained rattled and for instructors, the incident again emphasized reminders of how you can better protect yourself in your surroundings in similar situations.
That included instructor Crisy Griffin, who admitted the attack was heavy on the minds of the women she taught Monday morning at Chilcutt's Memphis Martial Arts.
"One of the first questions we had is 'what would you do?' and I told the ladies that situational awareness is the number one key," Griffin said.
Griffin demonstrated to ABC24 what people - including women - can do to be better prepared should they be approached by someone will ill intent - or attacked.
"If someone comes up and they invade my personal space, I'm immediately going to drop in base like this, this is going to give me a better body posture because if I don't and he decides to grab or push, I don't have a good defense, I'm going to fall," Griffin added.
The instructor also reminded people how to protect yourself - and your car - if someone jumps out of another car nearby, similar to what happened Friday in Germantown.
"If there is someone next to me, I'm not going to turn my back on them, so if I were to open my door, I turn like this and I slide in and I have eye contact with that person that's sitting in the car and if they were open the door, I would be able to shove my door and close theirs," Griffin said.
The instructor also showed how people can use their feet to push off an attacker, create space and break free - along with ways to break an attacker's grip.
"Dropping my weight down like this where I'm almost sitting on his leg and pushing this arm down I can come back with an elbow and at this point, I have control of an arm and I can swing around behind," Griffin said.
Monday, Germantown police said they're still looking for the three people they said were inside the car that drove away after the incident.
If you have any information, you're asked to call Germantown police at 901-754-7222.