'Twerking assault' victim goes public, says he feared for his life

WASHINGTON -- The man who called 911 when two women were twerking and grabbing him in a gas station in Washington, D.C., is telling his side of the story now.

The surveillance video of the incident went viral last month.

Washington Tharpe, 40, a middle school teacher, said in an interview with WJLA that he stopped for gas at the station and was trying to pay when the twerking began and the grabbing began. He said the woman in red grabbed his private parts.

"It looks like I just had some girls twerking on me and I just called the police. That is not what happened at all," Tharpe told WJLA.

He said he told both women to stop and get off of him, but they just continued to harass him. After he went outside, he said, the women followed him and tried to stop him from getting in his car. He then noticed that there was a group of men standing nearby.

"I'm thinking they were going to set me up" for a robbery, he said.

Or worse.

He managed to get in his car and decided to drive through the car wash. That's when he saw the same two women coming at him from the exit of the car wash.

"And I'm thinking, oh shoot, they're about to kill me."

That's when he called 911.

Tharpe said he felt like he had to tell what happened because the video only showed one side of the story.