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Thursday, January 14, 2010

Crime / News Attempted Robbery and Rape in Central District

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 2:45 PM

Posted by news intern Jon Brock

Around 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, Seattle police received a call that a woman was being attacked in the Central District. An officer arrived at a house near the crime scene and found the victim "lying on the carpet in the entryway of the house sobbing... visibly shaken and... having a hard time catching her breath," according to a police report.

The woman told officers that she worked near 12th Avenue and East Jefferson Street, and left at 4:00 a.m. to walk home toward 23rd Avenue via East Fir Street, the report says. Along the way, she saw a man running southbound. She removed her earphones and became a "little paranoid" at that point. When she reached the intersection, the man jumped out of the bushes with a "4-inch knife with jagged edges on the handle." He held the knife at her throat and demanded that she give him her money, only to add that "he wanted 'everything,'" the report continues.

The victim temporarily escaped, running to the other side of the street, before tripping and falling to the ground. The attacker "got on top of her and put the knife to her throat again and put his hand underneath her dress and touched her," according to her statement in the report. She was able to push the knife away from her throat and yell for help; "the male hit her in the forehead with a semi-closed fist to try in an attempt to get her to stop yelling," the report says.

Her cries for help did not go unnoticed, as "a woman came out of an unknown house and asked if someone needed help" and promptly "stated she was calling 911." The man then fled westbound on East Fir Street. The victim described the male as:

"Hispanic about 5'7" between 180 and 200 pounds with a sparse dark colored mustache wearing light colored 3/4 length Capri style pants with a stripe down the side of them, grey hooded sweatshirt, a light colored beanie style cap"... and "very wide shoulders."

Police searched for the assailant but couldn't find him. "[T]he suspect did not get any of her money," the report concludes.

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Another day in the CD

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on January 14, 2010 at 3:18 PM

That sounds terrifying, I am so glad that she escaped.

Posted by LT L on January 14, 2010 at 3:36 PM

In the attacker's defense, she did pick the wrong neighborhood to be walking home at 4AM in.

In all seriousness, 12th and Jefferson is a fucked up place to be during any non-daylight hours of the weekend, and also most other times. I lived just a block from where she works and I definitely had my wits about me walking near that intersection.

With groups of gangbangers wearing their signature asscrack-concealing knee-length white Ts standing in front of "Waid's house of love" being aggro with everyone that walks by, and the occasional vomiting crackhead, with the appropriate backdrop of juvenile hall one block away, I felt an imminent mugging everytime I walked in the area, and not even at 4AM.

Posted by gatecrasher on January 14, 2010 at 3:47 PM

I've been waiting patiently for some SLOGGER to enlighten me on this:

"wearing light colored 3/4 length Capri style pants with a stripe down the side of them,"

What the hell is this? Am I totally out of fashion sense, or is there some kind of 50's clamdigger gang I don't know about?

Posted by Jaymz on January 14, 2010 at 4:11 PM

@3 - "In the attacker's defense..."

Classy.

-Jon Brock

Posted by Unpaid Intern on January 14, 2010 at 4:31 PM

@3- Nice try.

I've been attacked in my own HOUSE on Queen Anne, twice. Once by a stranger and once by a roommate. I'm not sure location really matters, honestly.

Posted by triceritemple on January 14, 2010 at 4:45 PM

Safety is an illusion.

In the CD doubly so.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on January 14, 2010 at 4:47 PM

I hope they catch this bastard. Good thing the victim managed to get away. And what is up with the manpris?

Posted by Reg on January 14, 2010 at 4:49 PM

@6 - you sound like a shit magnet. Location does matter but possibly not in your case.

Posted by T. Danza on January 14, 2010 at 5:04 PM

@7, 9

QFT
There's a reason the acronym for the Central District is pronounced 'seedy' That said I'm happy in my little part of it.

Posted by gatecrasher on January 14, 2010 at 5:45 PM

@6 I'm sorry about your experiences- nobody deserves to be attacked. To address your point, though- I've lived in Queen Anne, and I currently live about a block from where this happened. There's a difference.

Posted by Farts Weird on January 14, 2010 at 5:49 PM

More gentrification will help reduce crime in the CD.

Posted by Davy Jones on January 14, 2010 at 5:56 PM

nice to get an update 3 days after it happened. tune your browser to central district news.com for this and other timely news stories. tune to the stranger for cap hill news and 3 month old bedbug tales.

Posted by mcscoop! on January 14, 2010 at 5:58 PM

thank you, 911 calling lady. and thank you for loudly stating your intentions to that effect.

Posted by kitty genovese deserved better on January 14, 2010 at 8:43 PM

I'm glad that she was interrupted before the outcome took a turn for the worse.

Safety tip:
People should NOT wear earphones while walking alone in the the dark. You're putting yourself at risk.

Posted by Dod on January 14, 2010 at 9:02 PM

good tip, Dod.

Also, always go TOWARDS the place with people, and if you think you're in danger, go INTO the police station or grocery store, not to your car.

If you panic, don't scream Rape or something, yell Fire! - people will ALWAYS help then.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on January 14, 2010 at 9:17 PM

I'm not advocating that citizens should HAVE to live in fear, and take responsibility for avoiding being targets of violence, (it really shouldn't be allowed to happen - planners really should design safer neighbourhoods aka Jane Jacobs), but that said, I go everywhere on bicycle. It's safer than being on foot.

Posted by Mazrah on January 15, 2010 at 4:11 AM

@16: Wrong again, Will. Not only do people tend to run *away* from fires rather than toward them, someone might misreport the emergency to the 911 operators.

Posted by Lee on January 15, 2010 at 7:21 AM

@18 -- actually he's right. Reporting the need for help due to a mugging in the CD usually has a pretty long response time- I'd challenge the SPD on their minimum time of responding anywhere that doesn't involve a fellow officer.

Report a car on fire and ZING! there is 4 dudes with AXES on site within about 2 minutes. (There is a fire station less than 5 blocks from the location of the attack).

Posted by razorclammer on January 15, 2010 at 10:11 AM