(Photo: Dave Guettler)
About a week ago, River City Bicycles built a concrete quarter-pipe in their parking lot outside their store on SE Martin Luther King Blvd just north of the Morrison Bridge. Shop owner Dave Guettler installed the ramp so employees and customers could practice tricks and have a bit of fun.
Guettler had no idea that it might help save a woman’s life.
According to Guettler, the ramp has become an instant hit with local skateboarders. “They were out there last night for several hours trying to nail a trick.” Then, around 6:00 pm (during shop hours), the skateboarders heard a woman screaming inside a car that was parked in the shop’s parking lot.
“I figure we’re up one now… We attribute the quarter pipe to saving that lady’s life.”
— Dave Guettler, River City Bicycles owner
“There was a couple fighting out in the parking lot,” recalls store manager Jesse Fairbanks, who was working and witnessed the incident. “The man pulled out something sharp and was trying to stab her.”
As the fight escalated, Guettler says the woman jumped out of the car screaming for help. When the skateboarders intervened, the man threatened them as well. At that point, Guettler reports, “One of the skaters clocked him over the head with his board.”
The skaters then held the assailant down until cops arrived. He was taken away in handcuffs.
Guettler tells he was a bit conflicted before installing the ramp. “How many people are going to get hurt on this thing?” he remembers thinking. But now he says, “I figure we’re up one now… We attribute the quarter pipe to saving that lady’s life.”