We frequently hear about altercations and the reluctance of spectators to engage and help the Police Officers do their job or even other victims. However in Baton Roge, Louisiana an older woman saw an incident and couldn’t just keep driving.

A small grandmother called Vickie Williams-Tillman saw the heated exchange by the side of the road and felt she had to do something to help.

She slowed her car to a stop and saw the suspect dive for the officer.

“They began tussling on the other side of the car,” she tells PEOPLE. “It didn’t look good.”

Thinking fast, the mother of three and grandmother of four dialed 911.

“But that wasn’t enough,” says Williams-Tillman, who works at a Catholic school during the day and cleans offices at night.

“I thought, ‘They’re not going to make it in time.’ There was just a small amount of time before something could have happened.”

When Aime tried to handcuff the suspect, identified as 28-year-old Thomas Bennett, he allegedly became aggressive, Baton Rouge Police Department spokesman Sgt. L’Jean McKneely tells PEOPLE.

I put the window down and I asked, ‘You got it?’” she says.

Still struggling with the suspect, the officer mouthed the word no.

At that moment, she says, “The officer and I just locked eyes. I will never forget the look in his eyes. His eyes said, ‘Help me.’”

Risking her own safety, the 5’2″ Williams-Tillman “jumped out of her vehicle and onto back of the assailant,” according to police. “It was just instinct,” she says, adding, “God led the way.”

She doesn’t remember exactly what happened in the frenzy that ensued, except that the suspect, who only had one wrist handcuffed, was allegedly trying to take the gun out of Aime’s holster.

“They both had their hands on the gun to see who would get it first, so I twisted the suspect’s arm,” she says. “Then we were all falling. I didn’t let go of his arm until we all fell. My tennis shoe came off in all of this, too.”

She didn’t realize she had bruises until later, she says. “But I’m a big girl. I’m a strong woman. It didn’t matter at the time.”