Woman calls actor an ‘amazing inspiration,’ warns ‘our streets are being taken over’
Actor Charlie Sheen has stepped up to support a woman who was seriously injured in a violent attack in Ohio last week.
Sheen, 59, donated $1,000 to a GiveSendGo campaign for a woman — who has requested to be identified only as “Holly” — was knocked unconscious by what Vice President JD Vance called a “mob of lawless thugs” who police say were fighting after a local jazz event near downtown Cincinnati.
As of Wednesday, the fundraiser, launched by conservative YouTuber Benny Johnson, has raised over $553,000 for Holly, a mother of three who suffered severe head trauma and a concussion after being knocked unconscious while trying to break up the fight.
The brawl, captured in widely circulated social media videos, showed Holly being punched and left motionless on the ground. Since the attack, Holly is “currently having to live in an undisclosed secure location due to threats on her life,” according to the fundraising campaign.
Six suspects have been charged, with five arrested, including one apprehended in Georgia, according to Cincinnati police. The brawl, which involved multiple disputes and reported racial slurs shouted by one victim, has sparked national debates about race and crime.
Several of the videos show a predominantly black crowd kicking and punching a white man on the pavement, with one video (language warning) capturing the moment a man punched Holly in the face, knocking her unconscious.
Holly told Johnson in an interview Tuesday that she “should be dead” after the assault. “I don’t even know how I’m not dead. I should be dead,” she said. “And so many doctors have been like, you should be dead.”
Johnson shared Sheen’s donation and comment from the fundraiser in a post on X: “My Ohio connections run deep, and what happened to you will NOT be tolerated by the ‘true’ Ohioans (Like yourself), as justice will reign supreme. Heal well, young lady, and know that we are all rooting for you!”
In turn, Sheen praised the swift response from both Johnson and Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked last week for getting the FBI involved in the case.
“The speed at which you and Sen (Bernie) Moreno hatched the donation plan was stunning and compassionate and as patriotic as it gets,” Sheen wrote, adding, “You both reminded all of us of the America we remain proud to call — home. Keep up the great work, and to Holly, ‘we’ have your six.”
In response, Holly shared a message for Sheen: “I love you Charlie. You have inspired so many people with your recovery and story. You went through dark times and came out of it. You are such an amazing inspiration to all of us. You are a lot of people’s hero now.”
It’s not the first act of philanthropy from the “Two and a Half Men” star, whose parents, Martin and Janet Sheen, hail from Dayton, Ohio, about 50 miles north of Cincinnati. In 2013, he donated $50,000 to My Friend’s Place, a Hollywood organization aiding homeless youth. That same year, he donated $10,000 to Teagan Marti, a teenager who was nearly killed in an amusement park ride accident in Wisconsin.
At a news conference Wednesday with Moreno, the woman told reporters she preferred not to “relive what happened” but to focus on “the future and how we can change it.”
Calling for more political accountability and police officers, Holly said, “The man who attacked me and might have permanently damaged me forever should never have been on the streets, ever. And the fact that he had just gotten out of jail previously for something he should have been in there for years, it’s really sad to me. … Our streets are being taken over and nobody is doing anything.”
Vance, a native of Middletown, Ohio, later described the attack as a “grown man who sucker punched a middle-aged woman” and called for the attackers to be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“I haven’t seen the full context, but what I saw is a mob of lawless thugs beating up on an innocent person,” said Vance. “You had a grown man who sucker punched a middle-aged woman, and where I come from at least, when you have a grown man who sucker punches a middle-aged woman, that person oughta go to jail for a very long time.”
