Following the sounds of his daughter’s screams, a Texas man stumbled into a barn. What he saw was surely horrific. His five year old little girl smothered underneath 47 year old Jesus Mora Flores. Any father in this situation would have been enraged. An innocent and helpless child struggling under the weight of a man would have enraged anyone. The fact that her rescuer was her own father only further contributed to this outrage.

When he saw the molestation he reacted in the only way he knew how. I imagine anyone else would have done the same if they had been in a similar situation. He pummeled her attacker. He beat him. He defended his child who could not defend herself. He exercised his right under Texan law to defend a third party against sexual assault.

After he felt he had sufficiently held off the threat, he realized that he needed to get the rapist help. He called 911 and begged someone to help him. He didn’t want the man to die, which is evident from his pleas on the recording of the call. The father not only begged the dispatcher to hurry, but even suggested driving the pedophile to the hospital. These suggestions illustrate his innocent nature. Not many people would try to save a man who had just raped a little girl, much less his own daughter. V’Anne Huser, the father’s attorney, refused to accept  that the father acted unjustly.

“He’s a peaceable soul,” Huser said to the Daily Mail. “He had no intention to kill anybody that day.”

The evidence that the little girl was definitely raped is numerous. Both eyewitness accounts and pieces of forensic evidence were discovered. The evidence that the man did not mean to kill his daughter’s attacker is also sufficient. Thus, it seems odd that anyone would question the decision to not press charges.

Despite the fact that the force the father used is authorized in the state of Texas, and certainly justifiable, some criticism is being directed towards the sheriff who was unwilling to press charges. Some argue that it is against the law to kill, and that the father beat the man up more than was necessary. They make the claim that it is an injustice to excuse the father from murder charges.

Both the father and his daughter have been through so much already. She will be faced with the damage left behind after a sexual assault, and the father faces not only that, but also the guilt of taking another man’s life. To put them both through more, to actually punish them further for an incident that neither had any intentions of being involved in, would be the true injustice.