Arlington, VA – A Good Samaritan was viciously beaten to death on Thursday night, after he tried to stop a man who was physically and sexually assaulting a woman.

The incident began at approximately 9:21 p.m. on Oct. 18, as 27-year old Michael Nash and his unnamed girlfriend were walking near South George Mason Drive and 13th Street South, WJLA reported.

Patricio Salazar, 54, was in the area and realized the woman was being assaulted.

He tried to help her to escape her attacker, and was savagely pummeled by Nash, police said.

Salazar lost consciousness, and Nash fled the scene.

Another man, Bradley Flood, said he witnessed the attack on Salazar and ran over to help.

“I opened up my window, and it sounded [like] very terrifying-type screams,” he told WJLA.

Flood said the man, later identified as Nash, threatened him, and that he noticed the attacker’s hands were covered in blood.

When Nash ran away, Flood realized that the female victim was naked.

She told Flood that Nash was her boyfriend, and that he had suddenly “snapped” and attempted to rape her, he said.

Flood said he stayed with Salazar and talked to him during his final moments.

“I could tell that he was hearing me,” Flood told WJLA. “I was telling him, ‘You’re a hero. You saved her’ and stuff and he would make noises that, he could hear me but then it dropped pretty quick after that.”

Salazar was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“I feel horrific,” Flood told WJLA. “I wish it’d been earlier to potentially save him.”

According to police, Nash fought with two other people in the area and unsuccessfully tried to rob them of their cell phones, WTOP reported.

He later stole a cell phone from another woman before running away.

Nash was ultimately apprehended near George Mason Drive and Columbia Pike, WJLA reported.

He has been charged with forcible sodomy, abduction with the intent to defile, and animate object sexual penetration, and was being held without bond at the Arlington County Detention Facility.

Additional charges were forthcoming, according to police.