LOWELL, Ind. (WISH) — A man in the country illegally is charged with attempted murder after stabbing a 14-year-old girl.

It happened at a youth baseball game over the weekend in northwest Indiana.

Matt Ramian told I-Team 8 he was coaching third base when he saw Dimas Yanes attack the sibling of one of his players.

The Lake County sheriff said Yanes was in the country illegally after being deported in 2018.

Raiman said, “It didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like this was actually happening.”

He says the 14-year-old girl was sitting on the bleachers by herself when Yanes walked up, pulled a large knife out, and attacked. “Just started swinging this knife on her like two, three times, and then he jumped off, took off running. He pulled the knife out on two other people as he was running, and it was just insane to watch because I’m on third base just trying to get the boys off the field.”

That’s when a group of dads chased after Yanes.

He escaped, but police found him the next day running from a cornfield.

According to court documents, Yanes told police he’s from Honduras and entered the United States in 2022 through Texas. He says what he did was not intentional and that someone was following him and told him to do it.

Raiman said, “Everybody wants to know why he chose her. Just because she was the only one on the bleacher? Was it because she was, maybe, he thought she was vulnerable? No one knows.”

The 14-year-old girl continues to be strong despite what happened.

Raiman said, “She’s a soldier. She’s a trooper, man. She’s doing really well. She insisted on going to school today, and her mom told her, ‘You know, you should stay home,’ and I know she wanted to go to school, so she did.”

The family wants privacy, but, in a statement, the mom of the teen praised the first responders who helped and said, “This is a hard time for us and still in shock and haven’t processed that this is real. You don’t believe this can happen to you and when it does it’s a shock. The community came together to search for the suspect on their days off and immediately chased him. it’s just so amazing how many nice people there are in the world to come together to catch the bad ones.”

Ramian does not want the incident to give all immigrants a bad rap. “If you’re coming here in a good manner and then you have something like this happen and it gives them a bad name just because of that, you know, that is sad. What’s that saying? One bad apple ruins it for the bunch.”

Ramian and the baseball community in Lowell say they are going to be holding a fundraiser to help pay for medical bills and potential therapy for the teenager.