Seattle Police are looking for this man who a woman says attacked her in a frightening incident in late April on Capitol Hill. Details on the attack and the attacker’s description from SPD are below. We’ll follow up with more as we learn it.
Seattle police need your help identifying a man who attacked a woman on Capitol hill last month.
On April 28, 2012, the victim made plans to meet a friend at a club near Boylston Avenue E. and E. Olive Way. At approximately 10:30 p.m.,the victim parked her car near a coffee shop on E. Olive Way. The victim was using a GPS App on her phone to navigate her way from her car to the club.
The suspect approached the victim at E. Olive Wy and offered to escort her to the club. They walked eastbound on E. Olive Wy. He led her northbound on Belmont Av E. and then turned eastbound on E. Thomas St. The victim looked at her phone and realized they were going in the opposite direction of the club. The suspect led her into an alley off of E. Thomas St and said this would get them back toward the club.
The suspect had a lanyard, attached to keys, hanging out of his pants pocket. When the two walked into the alley, the suspect fell a step behind the victim. He dropped his lanyard/keys onto the ground. The suspect picked up his lanyard/keys, reached over the victim’s head, wrapped the lanyard around her neck, and began to strangle her from behind.
The victim fell backward on to the ground and the suspect straddled her, pinning her to the ground. The suspect punched the victim in the head and face. The victim fought back. She punched the suspect several times in his face and believes the keys she had in her hand may have cut his face. The suspect covered the victim’s mouth with his right hand, and she bit down on that hand. The suspect then ran off northbound through the alley toward E. Thomas Street.
The suspect is described as a white male, 23-25 years old, 5’09 tall, 170 pounds, slender build, dirty blond or strawberry blonde hair with a short buzz cut. He was wearing a white baseball cap, beige “Members Only” jacket, beige/khaki work pants (similar to Dickie’s brand), white tennis shoes (with white soles).
The suspect may have lacerations to his face and a bite wound on the inside of his right hand.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of this suspect or information about this incident is asked to call the Seattle Police Department Sexual Assault tip line at 206-684-4882. Anonymous tips are welcome.
This neighborhood is really going down the crapper. Do the cops ever catch anyone? Every day there is some new awfulness. Is there nothing that can be done to curtail this crime wave?
With the present budget and with the Police responding to the Federal probe, it seems unlikely that there will be any more officers on patrol in the foreseeable future.
I suggest attending the East Precinct Advisory Council meetings to share your concerns and to network with others who are dealing with similar issues:
http://eastpac.org/
If the news stopped reporting crimes, you wouldn’t know they happened. Crime was worse in the 1990s on Capitol Hill than it is now. Fact.
Who cares if it was better in the 90s? It’s 2012, not 1995. What’s your point? How does that make crime today better?
This women should have called the cops its been 3 weeks I’m pretty sure if this guy had wounds they would be pretty close to healed by now. They probably won’t catch this creep and the blame can’t be put on the police in this situation.
Reaching back to the 90s is only a small stretch. The point is that the original poster references a nonexistent “crime wave”. Compared to earlier times (or more recent times), nothing too out of the ordinary is happening.
On another note… The cops can’t do much. Ever. It’s up to citizens to pay attention (um, don’t play with iPhone, iPad, iAmAnObliviousVictim; don’t follow strangers into dark places). The cops can attempt to help if they’re not called upon to use their psychic powers and crime is reported in a timely fashion.
WOW! Another story about a naive woman being led astray by a complete stranger at night. There was a similar crime story on here just two weeks ago!
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2012/05/07/chs
Both of these incidents could have easily of been avoided had the victims used basic elementary judgement.
YUP..You can’t blame the cops this time!
I have lived on the Hill for about 10 years now and I have definitely noticed a spike in crime (including a dead body found right next to my house last year). I think the argument that it was worse in the 90s not only ignores the current problem, but also is probably inaccurate. Perhaps it’s just the amazing and timely reporting of JSeattle that makes it seem like a “crime wave”, but that does not diminish the fact that steps need to be taken to address the problem. I would say a first step is to make Capitol and Broadway a little less palatable to the drifters and riff-raff who congregate around the neighborhood. Ticket for panhandling, put more lights on the streets and have police walking the beat, for starters.
Something just seems odd about the whole story.
While it was a obviously poor decision to follow this guy down an alley, Good for her for fighting back!
That is probably the reason it didn’t turn out any worse.
poster umvue has it right. Do not display electronic gear at night and do not follow strange people you meet at night. There is no crimewave. I have lived in urban areas all over north America and I can assure you, there is no crime wave. Additionally, using some common sense in urban areas can prevent unfortunate episodes like this one
There’s better ways to do this but…
Just jumping around here: http://www.seattle.gov/police/crime/stats.htm
Looking at my Sector/Beat (E1) it looks like we average 10-15 assaults each month. If the data were in a more friendly format I’d love to play around with some time series analyses.
Put me down as one of those who thinks the crime is getting worse again. I’ve lived on the Hill since the mid-’80s. It was def sketchy then. A decade later, it had improved; I’d stopped seeing people being assaulted on the streets. But in the last few years, I’ve started feeling unsafe again. Not helped by the unsolved murder in the neighborhood (the body left in the empty lot). When I visit my father, he insists I leave for home no later than 9;30, and I admit I’m somewhat nervous if we go down to B’way and it’s after sunset; I’ve run from muggers before, but my father can’t.
Yeah, stupid girl, it’s all /her/ fault!
This reminds me of two incidents in the U District in Feb. – guy of similar height and unusual hair color. From police report:
On Saturday, February 4, 2012 at approximately 3:45 p.m., a male suspect physically assaulted a female UW student on the Burke-Gilman Trail near Pend Oreille Rd. The male suspect was acting erratically, approached the female victim, tried talking to her, then lunged at her, grabbing her breasts. The victim ran from the scene, returned to her residence, and called a relative. The victim reported the assault to UW Police an hour later. The victim was not injured.
Officers checked the vicinity of the assault but the suspect was not located. During the same time frame, Seattle Police had a report of a similar assault north of campus with a suspect of similar description. The male suspect is described as light complexion, curly reddish-blonde hair, 20’s, 5’10”, thin build, wearing a puffy orange colored jacket and sunglasses with green frames.
You know, it is really messed up that some of you out there are blaming the innocent person. She may have made a bad decision by being alone but if you think it is her fault for being attacked, then maybe you are just as bad a person as the attacker. No person ever should have to go through with what happened to her. There is no reason or excuse why anyone should be defending this attacker by saying it is the victims fault. Would you ever tell your daughter or close family or friend that? Location is not irrelevant there are horrible people everywhere.