A pregnant woman had to be rescued from a river after escaping a man who tried to rape her at gunpoint.

Police responded to Front Street along the Quinnipiac River around 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday after people reported hearing a woman screaming. An alert neighbor jumped into action to help save her.

"We noticed there was a lot of commotion in the park," Ian Christmann said. "We heard them yelling for someone to stay calm."

Christmann lives across from the river and immediately ran toward it with his kayak.

The victim said she was behind her home at the Brewery Square Apartments when a man approached her with a shotgun and told her to take her clothes off, according to police. The attacker, identified by police as Steven Freytus-Rivera, slipped and fell and the woman tried to escape, but he was able to grab her and hit her with the gun, police said.

The woman was finally able to get away and jumped into the river to get away from Freytus-Rivera. He jumped in after her, but she swam away while screaming for help, police said.

"Apparently she was in the water for about 20 to 25 minutes, fighting the current and treading water," Christmann said.

Officers found the victim in the river and pulled her to shore with Christmann's help.

"I just went up close to her and gave her something to hang on to and she relaxed for a minute and just paddled her right over to the sea wall," Christmann said.

She was taken to the hospital to be evaluated.

Police located Freytus-Rivera, 31, clinging to a sea wall. He is charged with first-degree criminal attempt to commit aggravated sexual assault, second-degree assault of a pregnant person, threatening, robbery and possession of a sawed-off shotgun.