VICTORIA – Many members of the Parksville community are describing a local teen as a hero after she intervened in a dangerous disturbance in the city on Thursday.

Sara Picard, 16, told CTV News that she witnessed a violent altercation along Bay Street at roughly 2:45 p.m. Picard says that she saw a man trying to force a woman into a vehicle.

"I was walking through [the area] and about five or six feet away I saw a man trying to put this woman into a car," says Picard.

"She was screaming and yelling and it looked like something out of a movie at first."

Picard says she approached the man and told him to let the woman go, even going so far as to push him. Once pushed, the 16-year-old says that the man produced a knife.

"He pulled out a knife, like a hunting knife, and he said 'back up,' so I backed up a couple of feet and I called police."

Picard says that while she called police, she remained at the scene in case the man turned the knife on the woman.

"I watched the whole thing," says Picard. "I didn't know if he was going to stab the woman, and then I would need to tell that to the police."

Picard says that the man was saying things like "Are you cheating on me?" and "Are you happy?" to the woman before eventually turning the knife on himself.

Following the dramatic scene, Picard says she stayed with the woman until police arrived.

In a news release Friday, Oceanside RCMP say that they responded to a disturbance call on Bay Street and arrived to find an unresponsive 50-year-old man suffering from serious injuries.

Officers attempted to perform CPR on the man before he was airlifted to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, where he later succumbed to his wounds.

"Through investigation it was determined that the injuries received by this male were self-inflicted," said Cpl. Jesse Foreman of the Oceanside RCMP in a news release.

"It is not common for the RCMP to discuss specific circumstances in these events, however this disturbance happened in a busy area with many witnesses who may not be aware of the totality of the situation."

Police say that the disturbance was an isolated incident and that the general public is not in danger. No further information will be released by RCMP out of respect for the family, say police.

While many are praising Picard for her bravery, the Parksville teen says that she simply thought it was the right thing to do.

"For me it doesn’t really feel like I'm a hero, it feels like I'm just a citizen who's doing what they're supposed to do," says Picard. "That's what you're taught, if you see something going on you're supposed to help."

Following the dramatic incident, Picard says she was connected with victim services. The teen says that she feels like she is still in shock, but is otherwise unharmed.