VANCOUVER, Wash. -- A man who stepped in to stop the brutal assault of a toddler at a motel Tuesday night said he didn't think twice about intervening.
Don Gilbert was in his room at the Sunnyside Motel on Northeast Highway 99 when he heard screaming around 9 p.m. and grabbed a baseball bat.
Witnesses said Kyle Holder, 32, was beating and kicking his 2-year-old daughter in the parking lot of the motel.
Kyle Holder appears in court.
According to witnesses, Holder picked up his daughter from the bed in their motel room and proceeded to throw her out the window onto the cement walkway.
Court documents state that Holder then picked up the toddler again and threw her on the ground several times and started stomping on her head.
That's when Gilbert stepped in.
"I hit him once in the back. He had the baby by his feet," Gilbert said. "He took her to the curb and just slammed her down, and that's when I cracked him in the skull three or four times."
Don Gilbert
Deputies said the man was out of control when they arrived and they were forced to use a Taser on him.
Court documents revealed after he was taken into custody, Holder made several statements to deputies about his actions.
"I did not want to kill her, but I had to. I had to hold my daughter and crush her head so she could go up to the sky," Holder said, according to documents.
Deputies said they had responded to a complaint about Holder at the motel earlier in the day, but did not arrest him.
Gilbert said that's when he noticed Holder was acting strangely.
"He was just babbling about God's coming for everyone and he's got to get the evil out of his daughter," Gilbert said.
The toddler is in critical condition at a local hospital. Holder is in jail facing first degree attempted murder charges.
Officials said Gilbert is not likely to face any charges.
Though he likely saved the little girl's life, Gilbert doesn't want to be called a hero.
"The question is, why wouldn't somebody do this?" Gilbert said. "If more people took time to care less about themselves and more about innocent people, we wouldn't have the crap going on in the world we do now."
