A 23 year-old Texas father beat a man to death on Monday for allegedly sexually assaulting his four-year-old daughter.
Lavaca County Sherriff Micah Harmon said the father and daughter were at their barn, along with several other people, to groom and care for horses there. The victim, 47, was a casual acquaintance of the father.
According to the New York Daily News, the alleged sexual attack took place in a pasture next to the barn. Police said the father was alerted after he said he heard the girl screaming.
“In the course of trying to get her away from him, and protect her, he struck the subject several times in the head and the subject died,” Harmon said.
The Victoria Advocate reported that the case remains under investigation. Sherriff Harmon said he did not know what charges, if any, would be filed. Neither the father nor the victim’s identities have been released, and no arrests have been made so far.
Depending on what investigators discover, a grand jury could indict the father in the man’s death.
Harmon, however, thinks the father has a strong case.
“You have a right to defend your daughter,” Harmon said. “He acted in defense of his third person.”