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Tulsa Man Severely Beaten After Stopping to Help a Kidnapped Teenage Girl
A Tulsa man is recovering from a brain bleed, broken back, broken ribs and multiple surgeries after stopping to help a 17-year-old girl being held against her will by her boyfriend. He says he would do it again.
Photo by https://www.gofundme.com/f/thomas-ellis-didnt-walk-away-neither-should-we
He saw a teenage girl arguing with a man at a gas station. Something felt wrong.
So Thomas Ellis pulled in.
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Police say the 17-year-old girl had been forced to leave a party with her boyfriend, Holden Cothran. The two were arguing at the gas station when Ellis noticed them.
Cothran drove off. The girl asked Ellis for a ride home.
She got in the car. That is when everything changed.
Police say Cothran tracked them down while they were driving. He fired several shots into Ellis's vehicle while the girl was still inside.
Then he ordered both of them out.
"He runs over and grabs me, throws me down on the ground. And that's when the kicking ensued," Ellis said. "The only thing I'm pretty sure I remember doing is covering my head."
He does not know what kind of boots Cothran was wearing. Whatever they were, they nearly killed him.
Ellis suffered a brain bleed, a black eye, a broken back, a broken wrist and broken ribs. Doctors inserted rods and screws during two separate surgeries.
He woke up alone on the ground.
Ellis crawled back to his car and drove himself to a nearby gas station, where someone called 911.
If you have followed this far, here is the part that stops you completely.
Despite everything, Ellis says he would do the same thing again. "I just had a granddaughter that graduated high school," he said. "And I think, man, if something like that happened to her, I would pray that someone would do something."
He is not angry. He is not bitter. He is in a rehabilitation center recovering from two surgeries and he is saying he has no regrets.
Cothran later shot and killed himself. The teenage girl was not physically hurt.
Ellis is expected to spend several more months in rehab before he can fully recover.
The girl he helped is safe. The man who nearly beat him to death is gone. And Thomas Ellis is lying in a hospital bed somewhere in Tulsa saying he would pull into that gas station all over again.
That is the kind of person who still exists in this world. Even when the world makes him pay this kind of price for it.
If you would like to support Thomas Ellis in his recovery, his GoFundMe can be found at: gofundme.com/f/thomas-ellis-didnt-walk-away-neither-should-we
Editor's Note: The story of Thomas Ellis is one of genuine, unrewarded courage. He intervened to protect a stranger, paid an extraordinary physical price for it and has no regrets. As he continues his recovery, the Tulsa community and beyond have rallied around him. His story deserves to be heard far beyond Oklahoma.
