Madison Reporter

Madison teen Jade Petrowski-Busse is being hailed as a hero after coming to the aid of a neighbor she heard “screaming like bloody murder” for help as she was being sexually assaulted on the city’s east side.

“She’s a hero,” Lt. James Ostrenga told NBC 15 after Petrowski-Busse sprang into action. “She didn’t just sit back. She went down and stopped what was going on.”

Police said the incident took place shortly after midnight April 12, when Petrowski-Busse came down to see what was happening and came face to face with the suspect.

After yelling at the man and trying to pull him off the woman, police said the man turned his attention to Petrowski-Busse, ultimately slamming her to the ground and leaving her bruised and battered, NBC 15 reported.

“He collided chest to chest and then I tried to grab him, and he started punching me in the left side of my head and I let him go,” Petrowski-Busse said. “He saw that I had a phone in my hand that I was trying to call the cops with and smacked it out of my hand then took off running.”

As she reflected on the incident, Petrowski-Busse admitted she has been concerned for her own safety as a similar situation could happen to her.

“I have had times living here where we’ve been walking home late at night and we’ve had to look around because it sounds like there are people following us,” she said. “But we can never see anybody. I just know that if I was screaming and stuff like that, I would want somebody to help me. It doesn’t matter if I’m younger, or if this thing could’ve escalated. For the victim it’s good to know that somebody is there, and somebody cares.”

Police have yet to make an arrest in the case, though Ostrenga said investigators have worked with a sketch artist to create a visual of the suspect, according to NBC 15. Police described the suspect as a Black man in his 20′s with a slender build.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Madison Area Crime Stoppers at 608-266-6014.