Jenna Brians knew she was driving toward a violent man. She knew the danger her estranged husband posed, but she got into her car anyway.
In that moment, she said, the instinctual fear of being hurt or even killed was cast aside by her motherly instinct to save her 2-year-old twin daughters.
Brians was one of seven people heralded for their bravery Monday during the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office’s 35th annual Citizens of Courage Awards in Liberty Station. District Attorney Summer Stephan said the recipients were all ordinary citizens who stepped up to do extraordinary things.
“The recipients were all called upon to save a life, to bring humanity into a situation that is absolutely awful and out of their control, and somehow find the courage within them to do that,” Stephan said.
About 350 people at this year’s luncheon listened as Stephan and public officials described each awardee’s heroic actions.
It was June 13, 2020, and Brians was already on her way to Imperial Beach to get her daughters, Aubrey and Hailey, when she received a text from her estranged husband. Robert Brians sent her a photo of both girls in the front seat of a car with no car seats or seat belts, “telling me to say goodbye to my daughters because he was going to kill himself and my kids,” she recalled.
Brians called police and helped them locate her husband. After Brians tried to reason with her husband on the phone, pleading with him to spare the girls’ lives, he drove his car off Sunset Cliffs with the girls inside. First responders were able to rescue the twins and their father.
“Jenna deserves to be awarded for her courage, strength and literally unwavering love for her daughters,” said Deputy District Attorney Franciesca Balerio. “She beautifully balanced being a mother, a victim and a critical witness, which is extremely difficult to do.”
Brians described the ordeal as “terrifying, horrific.”
“I see myself just as a lucky mom who gets to watch her daughters grow up,” she said.
Robert Brians pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping, as well as one count each of child abuse, burglary and domestic violence. He was sentenced to 31 years in state prison.
A group of good Samaritans — Loay Yousif, Francisco Sesma, Hunter Nemeth and James Carver — were also recognized for their heroism on April 27, 2022, when they detained a gunman who shot California Highway Patrol Officer Antonio Pacheco. All four men separately stopped to help when they saw blood on the ground next to an officer’s vehicle and a crashed car on eastbound Interstate 8 near the Interstate 805 over around 6:15 p.m.
After seeing the injured officer, Yousif sprang into action and grabbed the man he suspected to be the gunman. Seconds later, Sesma ran up with a knife and helped Yousif hold the suspect down.
Meanwhile, Carver and Nemeth, a nurse on his way home from work, helped the officer, fashioning a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
Investigators later determined Pacheco had pulled over to help the gunman — who had purposefully crashed his car — when the suspect reached for the officer’s gun and fired a round into the officer’s leg.
“Every single one of them looked at the situation and did what needed to be done,” Deputy District Attorney Shane Waller said. The suspect was “willing to fight an armed individual and try to kill them in broad daylight, and they still stopped.”
The gunman, later identified as Yuhao Du, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and attempting to take a firearm from a peace officer performing his duties. He was sentenced to 23 years in state prison.
Another award recipient was arrested at a hotel in 2019 before later being identified as a survivor of human trafficking.
“I didn’t even know what human trafficking was until the night I was arrested, which was multiple years into me being in the life,” said Erin Wilkerson, who was recognized for her efforts since then helping other girls forced into similar situations. “Humanity is key. It’s not hard to treat someone like a human. At the end of the day, that is the message I want received.”
Wilkerson began speaking to law enforcement to advocate for a better understanding of the world of human trafficking and the situation some young women are coerced into. San Diego police Detective Dan Dierdoff said that her talks have changed the opinions of of law enforcement, who can, in turn, change other people’s lives.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anyone as strong as her in my career,” Dierdoff said.
Awardee Robert Moore was working as a security guard when he witnessed a late-night shooting in Spring Valley and came to the aid of a badly wounded victim and her crying child.
On April 24, 2021, Moore was on his way to work when he saw a man get out of a car armed with an AK-47 and fire upon a father, mother and their daughter, who were parked in front of a liquor store.
Instead of speeding away, Moore headed toward the shot-up sedan that was then on fire. The father and child were not wounded, but the mom had been shot. He loaded her in his car and immediately took her to the hospital. Karmen Anderson, 40, died two days after the shooting, investigators said.
“He ran toward gunfire … and did everything in his power to help the victim to get her best chance at survival,” Deputy District Attorney Kerry Conway said.
Jammerieo Austin was ultimately arrested and charged with murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
