Billy Grooms intervened in an alleged strangulation as his son watched from a Hillsboro gas station.
HILLSBORO, Ohio — The woman attacked in a gas station parking lot says Billy Grooms saved her life when he intervened, an act police say ended with the Ohio father being run over and fatally injured before his son.
Her statement is one of the few public accounts from someone at the center of the May 31 violence. She called Grooms a hero and said she would remain grateful for his actions. Grooms, 49, died four days later. Javen Austin Meadows, 23, now faces two murder counts, attempted murder and other charges accusing him of attacking the woman and using a Ford F-150 against people in the parking lot.
The woman’s name has remained private as the criminal case has widened. Court records describe what she allegedly endured: Meadows grabbed her by the neck, strangled her, threw her onto the ground and kicked her. When she stood, he allegedly took her phone and punched her down again. The public documents do not say whether she lost consciousness, required hospital care or suffered lasting injuries. They also leave unresolved whether she was the former girlfriend whom Meadows allegedly followed to the station. Police reports summarized in news coverage say he followed an ex-girlfriend, but early accounts did not firmly connect that description to the unnamed woman.
Her statement focuses not on those uncertainties but on the moment Grooms entered the confrontation. “I believe Billy was a hero,” she said. “I believe his actions saved my life.” The words suggest she viewed the alleged strangulation as potentially fatal and Grooms’ intervention as the event that ended it. Strangulation allegations can depend on evidence that is not always visible in the first minutes after an attack, including breathing difficulties, neck pain, voice changes and witness observations. Authorities have not released her medical records or a complete interview, and the available indictment does not disclose how prosecutors intend to prove the strangulation count.
Another witness carried a different connection to Grooms. His son was with him at the station and saw the encounter in which his father was struck, according to relatives and police accounts. Officials have not released the son’s age or detailed statement. Family reporting says Grooms saw the woman being choked, approached the man assaulting her and told him to let her go. His son’s view could help establish how the intervention began and what happened when the alleged attacker returned to his truck. It also places a child or young family member at the scene of the fatal violence, a fact Grooms’ relatives have cited as part of their loss.
For Amy Grooms, the incident was relayed through both the investigation and the hospital. She said Meadows got into the F-150, drove toward her husband, struck him and dragged him. She then watched doctors try to manage multiple broken bones and a devastating brain injury. “We were trying for hope,” she said of the family’s first days at the hospital. Relatives hoped physicians could stop the swelling in Grooms’ brain, but his condition declined. By June 4, the family had been told that nothing more could restore him, according to their public comments.
The family authorized organ donation after life support ended. Relatives said Grooms’ organs would help at least five people. The donation gave his family a way to describe continuity between the choice he made at the gas station and the final medical decisions made on his behalf. Angela Osborn, his sister-in-law, said Grooms had always been someone who tried to save others. Hospital staff planned an honor walk, a ceremony in which workers and relatives line a corridor as an organ donor is taken toward surgery. Specific information about the recipients was not disclosed.
Outside the hospital, friends and strangers contributed to a fundraiser for the household Grooms supported. Reports said the campaign passed $30,000 as the story spread. Family members described him as the primary breadwinner and said his death left his wife and sons facing expenses as well as grief. Accounts varied over whether he was the father of two or three, but local reporting identified two sons and his wife as his immediate survivors. The differences in national descriptions have not changed the central family account that one son was present at the station.
The woman, the son and other possible witnesses may now become part of a lengthy court process. Meadows was first arrested on allegations of assault and strangulation. Those charges addressed the reported attack on the woman while police continued investigating Grooms’ injuries and death. Hillsboro police said additional charges were possible. On July 7, a Highland County grand jury returned a seven-count indictment that formally accused Meadows of murder in Grooms’ death and of further crimes against two other people.
The indictment contains two murder theories. Prosecutors allege in one count that Meadows purposely caused Grooms’ death. In the other, they allege he knowingly caused the death as a direct result of committing or attempting to commit felonious assault. The attempted murder charge concerns conduct directed at a second person that prosecutors say would have resulted in murder if it had succeeded. Two felonious assault counts allege harm or attempted harm involving the pickup, while the strangulation count concerns the alleged attack on the woman. The state is also seeking forfeiture of the F-150.
The charging document identifies the truck as a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument in parts of the case. That language does not mean a court has decided the vehicle was deliberately used as a weapon. Prosecutors must prove the allegation through evidence, and Meadows has the right to challenge their interpretation. The defense may focus on what he could see, where the victims stood and whether the pickup’s path shows intent or panic. No defense account of the parking lot confrontation has been detailed in the public reports reviewed for this story.
The first collision occurred as Meadows arrived shortly after 2:30 a.m., according to the original affidavit. His F-150 allegedly hit another truck before he parked and approached the woman. The indictment now includes a third alleged victim, indicating that the confrontation affected more people than the first assault filings showed. Public records do not make clear whether that person was inside the vehicle struck on arrival, stood near Grooms or encountered the pickup as Meadows left. Prosecutors will need to match each count with a person and a specific act as the case proceeds.
The surviving witnesses’ perspectives may overlap without being identical. The woman was experiencing a physical attack and may have seen Grooms only when he reached her. Grooms’ son may have watched from another angle and focused on his father. Other occupants could have seen the pickup’s movement but missed the earlier strangulation. Employees or customers may have viewed the event through windows, around pumps or across parked vehicles. Investigators must compare those accounts with physical evidence rather than rely on one description alone.
Surveillance footage could answer some questions, but authorities have not publicly confirmed whether useful video exists. Investigators may also examine vehicle damage, tire paths, phones and communications from before the encounter. Medical evidence will be important for both Grooms and the woman. Grooms’ hospital records can connect the collision to his death, while examinations of the woman could support or challenge details in the strangulation allegation. Any recovered phone data might establish contact between Meadows and his former girlfriend or show efforts to seek help.
The location adds its own evidence. A gas station parking lot can contain fixed cameras, bright canopy lights, painted lanes, curbs and pumps that help investigators measure movement. It can also have visual obstructions caused by trucks, signs and equipment. The incident occurred in the predawn hours, when fewer people may have been present but artificial lighting could have made parts of the lot visible. Police have not released a scene diagram or full crash reconstruction.
Meadows is presumed innocent, and a grand jury indictment establishes only that prosecutors may proceed with the accusations. An arraignment and later hearings will give the defense an opportunity to enter a plea, seek evidence and challenge the case. Prosecutors may need the surviving woman and other witnesses to testify, though no witness list or trial date had been publicly reported by July 10. The court may also address the custody and proposed forfeiture of the pickup.
For the woman who survived, however, the case began before the legal counts and courtroom schedules. It began with an attack in a parking lot and a stranger who moved toward her instead of away. For Grooms’ family, the same moment brought a son’s eyewitness experience, four days of fading medical hope and a loss that organ donation could honor but not reverse.
The seven-count prosecution will determine whether Meadows is criminally responsible for that chain of harm. Grooms’ intervention is no longer in dispute among those who knew why he crossed the lot: A woman was under attack, and he acted before he knew what it would cost.
Author note: Last updated July 10, 2026.