Heroes: Women describe how they saved San Pedro teen after brutal gang beating

SAN PEDRO, Calif. (FOX 11) - The young women who saved a teenager from dying after he was beaten by gang members are speaking out.

Jazmine Rivas has never met Evan Jimenez, but she saved his life. The closest they've come to meeting is a video call he made to Rivas via FaceTime.

"He was like, 'I just want to thank you for saving my life,'" recounted Rivas. "I literally just broke down because everyone telling me that I saved his life. It didn't compare to him telling me himself."

Two weeks ago, Evan walked Rivas' younger sister, Sofia Martinez, home. The 15-year-old was in an alley as he was leaving. That's when the LA County Sheriff's Department say he was attacked by two gang members. They beat him as part of a gang initiation. They broke glass bottles on him, pummeled him with their hands and choked him.

"We just heard all this commotion and the bottle breaking," said Martinez. "I immediately ran to my window, and I see him just laying there. They just left him there."

The young women drove him to the Harbor UCLA. Evan, a baseball player at San Pedro High School, is slowly getting better, but it will be a long time before he returns to the baseball diamond. He's now at Miller's Children's Hospital learning to walk again. So far, no one has been arrested in his beating.

"I think it's really disgusting what they did to him because he didn't deserve that," said Martinez. "No one should have deserved that."

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