When police officers arrived in Lower Queen Anne on September 25 in response to an assault call, officers were greeted by the sight of a shirtless man lying face-down, surrounded by several other men. Two of these men told officers that the face-down man had just assaulted a woman. While West Precinct Officer Bonesteel interviewed witnesses, a female officer was called in to take the victim’s testimony, as she was still “visibly shaken.”

According to the woman’s statement, half an hour before the 2:00 a.m. bar push-out on Saturday, she left a bar on East Roy Street and headed east toward home. When she decided to take a shortcut through the alleyway on the 700 block of 2nd Avenue North, she noticed a man “with his blue shirt halfway off and speed walking towards her.” She started walking faster. She noticed the man kept pace. Then she began to run.

The report goes on, according to victim testimony: “[He] caught up with her and pushed her into some nearby bushes. [She] began to scream and [he] grabbed her throat making shushing noises at her. [She] was still able to scream and [he] placed his other hand inside her mouth attempting to silence her.”

Meanwhile, two witnesses who had just left a nearby bar heard the victim’s muffled screams coming from the alley. When they walked over to investigate, they allegedly saw the suspect towered over the victim, with his hands covering her face and throat. The police report states that both witnesses demanded, “What the fuck, do you know each other?” to which they received simultaneous replies of “Yes” and “No,” from the suspect and victim, respectively. Then, they state, the suspect released his alleged victim and fled south toward Roy Street. One of the witnesses stayed with the victim while the other chased after the suspect. Fortunately, the suspect tripped over a guide wire and the witness was able to guard over him until police arrived.

Another creepy detail from the police report: While reading the suspect his Miranda rights, Officer Bonesteel noted that the suspect’s cargo shorts zipper was down. Another witness who flagged down the officers noted that earlier in the evening, she had seen “a white male with a blue shirt and cargo shorts following a brunette woman with his genitals exposed,” and that “he had his hand inside his shirt and was rubbing his penis while he followed the woman.”

92 replies on “Witnesses Thwart Alleged Rapist in Lower Queen Anne”

  2. Sad to say, but I’ve seen this kinda thing coming for a while.

    People round here — young female people primarily — have gotten really, really lazy about (late-night, drunken) personal safety and the need to travel in pairs for you, and each other’s, protection. I’m amazed how many pretty lil’ thinks I see stumble out of the bar and into darkened streets without a clue about what could happen.

    Has it really been that long since Mia_Zapata???

  6. Wow, it only two two posts to blame the victim. Awesome. I’ve got a vagina and, barring an invasive gender reassignment surgery, it ain’t going anywhere. It’s other people’s responsibility to not go attacking it.

    Kudos to the guys who came to the woman’s rescue. Good on them!

  7. @2: Some people don’t want to live in a constant state of terror. Calculated risk is not “lazy”, and carries the implication that they’re being reckless by doing so.

  9. @8: Sounds like some weird Walter Mitty / white knight protection fantasy at best, or otherwise regressive.

    “I’m only protecting you from the world, honey!”

  11. @2 If I felt like I needed to be escorted every time I left the house I would move to Saudi Arabia.

    I’m glad to live in a city with the same people who intervened in this situation, and sad to know that a lot of people wouldn’t have.

  12. @All:

    According to the woman’s statement, half an hour before the 2:00 a.m. bar push-out on Saturday, she left a bar on East Roy Street and headed east toward home.

    I didn’t say she was stumbling. I didn’t say she was drunk. I didn’t say anything about her being at fault. You’re projecting all that crap.

    Listen, I put drunk girls in taxi cabs at 2:00am for a living. This isn’t some armchair philosophy from an old man that’s never partied. It’s a bit of advice based on years of working in the bar/club industry and seeing what drunk people do and how they act in/around/after leaving bars. For 20 years.

    But if you want to think that appealing to all women to be mindful and protect one another after a friend of mine was raped and killed in a similar situation a generation — and it would seem, mental light years — ago makes me a hater, then you can go STFU yourself, idoits!

    (Or… maybe read up on the what’s a whys of Home Alive before you open your self-righteous lil’ pie hole, please.)

    If you love one another, protect one another:
    Friends don’t let friends leave the bar alone.

  13. Ha! I was there outside to see my friends pursue the perp. He didn’t trip over the utility pole guide wire so much as he was clotheslined by it rather. Dazed, he was promptly tacked and restrained until the cops arrived. Classy guy.

  14. @12: “Be mindful” != “young female people primarily — have gotten really, really lazy”

    It’s a value judgment, and yes, BLAMES THE VICTIM.

    Be conscious about your language, which is speaking different intentions than you may yourself hold.

  15. Creepy crime. Maybe, if it is demonstrated that one cannot responsibly handle one’s genitals, they should be confiscated for the sake of others.

  16. While this story is totally scary, I gotta say I feel great about the men who stepped in to help her. It is awesome that they acted and they may have saved her life. Go boys!

  19. Also, OFFICER BONESTEEL.

    He just shows up, and shit is automatically handled. He carries a flip top notebook that he takes out just to write ‘handled’ in it. That’s his report.

    He types that shit up every night before he goes home to his beautiful wife, four adopted children and his shelter rescued pets.

    He only drinks straight American bourbon.

    No ice.

  20. #2 isn’t blaming the victim. He/she makes the valid point that women need to be extra careful and not take shortcuts through dark secluded alleys all alone.

    It’s the same logic reason parents of young children should never let there little ones out of their direct sight on nature hikes; you never know what wild animals could be lurking out of site, waiting to pounce.

  22. What the fuck ever 20. I’m sure he tells men to never walk alone for fear of being mugged, because only “lazy” men get mugged.

    Oh, she shouldn’t have been drunk!
    Oh, she shouldn’t have been alone!

    Folksy non-solutions aren’t helpful when they’re offered patronizingly.

  23. @20 Yes, likening adult women to young children who need to be protected from their own choices is totally not insulting there.

    I’ve been raped and I know a lot of women who have been raped. Yes, these “dark alley at 2 AM” rapes happen, but the majority are more like “hanging out with a cute guy who’s got a degree in English lit and we’re chatting about indie comics and oh shit he’s choking me and pulling out his dick.” Living your life in fear of the black swan event of the dark alley stranger assault is all fine and good, but it doesn’t protect you from the far more likely dangers and it puts all the onus on the potential victim. It took me a long time to be able to live my life without being completely crippled by fear. Would I walk down a dark alley alone at night? No, the fear remains too strong, but I’m not going to judge anyone who’s lucky enough to not be the walking wounded.

  24. I’m surprised (and a little dissapointed) that the guys that came to the rescue didn’t put a boot to his ribs and/or face a few times while they were waiting for the cops.

    I’m sure officer BONESTEEL would have approved.

  25. I love these hero guys. in addition to doing the right thing by responding, there’s this: “hey, do you guys know eachother?”

    that’s an enlightened position. ‘well, it doesn’t look right, but just in case this is a happy couple with a weird taste for alleyway bushes, I better ask…’

  26. @18:
    It’s not your fault. It is your friends — the ones that let you walk home alone — ‘s fault. (You might note creepy creeper wasn’t following groups of people down the street with his fly down, just women alone.)

    It’s always tempting to project ourselves into the staring role in any story. But try putting yourself in a supporting role for a change: Imagine for a second you’d been one of the people the almost-victim had been hanging with earlier.

    How do you think you’d feel the next day, when you found out what had happened to your BFF after you’d let her leave the bar on her own that night?

  27. this sort of doorguy-machismo is really common, but they’re contributing to rape culture with their tongue-clucking about how girls “should have known better”.

    fuck off with your creepy white-knighting. recommend it at the time and when someone’s trashed, but don’t shake your head and look down on those who got followed be a predator and don’t call them names, creep. it’s very easy to go through life 6foot something 250lbs, and not have to require a “minder” wherever you go at night for all of your life. it comes off as controlling, not positive

  28. @26: “It’s not your fault. It is your friends — the ones that let you walk home alone — ‘s”

    or, just putting it out there, you know it could be say, the rapists fault and umm not anyone else that didn’t willfully violate another human being?

  29. @28 Yes. The rapist is at fault. Rape doesn’t just “happen” to people who made the wrong choice. It is a violent act that one person–THE RAPIST–willfully sought out to commit. People might feel guilty over something bad happening to a friend, but that doesn’t mean it’s their responsibility to treat their women friends like rape-bait every time they leave the house.

  30. #2 isn’t blaming the victim. I grew up in Cold War Europe where kidnapping was a very real possibility. My parents taught us to be alert, to be observant and to be mindful of potential problems and solutions. I didn’t grow up feeling paranoid, I grew up assessing risks, and knowing that if something did happen to me, we’d talked about what to do. It was never stated that I might not make it home, though that was certainly true. We were taught to think.

    #2 is right. People are getting complacent. Maybe we’re burnt out on terror. Maybe the younger generation is so used to hover-parents solving all of life’s problems and sheltering their kids from anything unpleasant that the idea that someone should be responsible for their own well being is foreign. Rape isn’t the only thing that happens in alleys. Cutting alone through a narrow, dark space is a bad tactical decision whether you have a penis or a vagina. You could be mugged, raped, there could be a loose dog, you could trip over something and have trouble calling for help, there could be people behind a dumpster doing consensual things you’d still rather not see.

    There is no way to eliminate risk. Bad things happen, and yes, more sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knows than complete strangers. But you don’t have to live in constant fear OR not be a dumbass. You lock your car. You wear seatbelts. You lock your doors. You wash your hands after using the restroom. You don’t go hiking covered in doughnuts and beer. You don’t drive the wrong way on streets, stick forks into electrical sockets, approach dogs you don’t know, swim in rip tides or any number of other things that have a bad risk/reward ratio. When you get in your car and lock your door, are you thinking in detail about car-jackings? When you fasten your seatbelt are you thinking in gruesome detail about what happens to flesh in car crashes? NO, you just do the freaking thing because it’s what you do to reduce harm.

    There’s no reason fear has to enter your mind when you look down a dark alley and say, “eh, I’ll stick to the sidewalk.” Is that going to prevent all rape ever? Of course not. Is that even going to prevent *that* rape? You know, if someone wants to harm me enough, they’ll do it, or at least try. People are dicks sometimes, whether or not they have one. Rape happens because rapists rape. Muggings happen because people steal wallets. Car accidents happen because physics works. That doesn’t mean I can’t hedge my bets a little and make them work for it.

  31. #2 isn’t blaming the victim. I grew up in Cold War Europe where kidnapping was a very real possibility. My parents taught us to be alert, to be observant and to be mindful of potential problems and solutions. I didn’t grow up feeling paranoid, I grew up assessing risks, and knowing that if something did happen to me, we’d talked about what to do. It was never stated that I might not make it home, though that was certainly true. We were taught to think.

    #2 is right. People are getting complacent. Maybe we’re burnt out on terror. Maybe the younger generation is so used to hover-parents solving all of life’s problems and sheltering their kids from anything unpleasant that the idea that someone should be responsible for their own well being is foreign. Rape isn’t the only thing that happens in alleys. Cutting alone through a narrow, dark space is a bad tactical decision whether you have a penis or a vagina. You could be mugged, raped, there could be a loose dog, you could trip over something and have trouble calling for help, there could be people behind a dumpster doing consensual things you’d still rather not see.

    There is no way to eliminate risk. Bad things happen, and yes, more sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knows than complete strangers. But you don’t have to live in constant fear OR not be a dumbass. You lock your car. You wear seatbelts. You lock your doors. You wash your hands after using the restroom. You don’t go hiking covered in doughnuts and beer. You don’t drive the wrong way on streets, stick forks into electrical sockets, approach dogs you don’t know, swim in rip tides or any number of other things that have a bad risk/reward ratio. When you get in your car and lock your door, are you thinking in detail about car-jackings? When you fasten your seatbelt are you thinking in gruesome detail about what happens to flesh in car crashes? NO, you just do the freaking thing because it’s what you do to reduce harm.

    There’s no reason fear has to enter your mind when you look down a dark alley and say, “eh, I’ll stick to the sidewalk.” Is that going to prevent all rape ever? Of course not. Is that even going to prevent *that* rape? You know, if someone wants to harm me enough, they’ll do it, or at least try. People are dicks sometimes, whether or not they have one. Rape happens because rapists rape. Muggings happen because people steal wallets. Car accidents happen because physics works. That doesn’t mean I can’t hedge my bets a little and make them work for it.

  33. Replace”raped” with mugged and killed an replace “woman” with “man” and no one here would be attacking @26. @26 isn’t attacking the victim, he’s just pointing out we live in an imperfect world that contains some real scum, and we should watch out for ourselves and friends.

    Glad to hear that those guys helped the woman out, kudos to them and my heart goes out to the woman, no one should ever have that happen tonthem

  34. “Maybe the younger generation is so used to hover-parents solving all of life’s problems and sheltering their kids from anything unpleasant”

    RAPES ARE NOT INCREASING SO MUCH AS PEOPLE ARE UNAFRAID TO REPORT THEM

  35. @33: “Replace”raped” with mugged and killed an replace “woman” with “man” and no one here would be attacking @26″

    Wrong, this was already brought up.

  38. There’s a hell of a lot of black-and-white thinking going on in this thread. In general, black-and-white thinking isn’t very helpful.

    @30 and @31 is right enough to post it twice.

  41. @38: Let me get this straight, it’s the LEAST polarizing to blame the woman who gets raped for walking home alone, not the most?

  44. @41 That is not anywhere near how I interpreted @30. My point is that the following two statements can be true at the same time:

    a) The victim of a crime is not at fault, the perpetrator is.

    and

    b) Crimes happen in cities and there are things you can do to improve your safety.

  46. 44: “b) Crimes happen in cities and there are things you can do to improve your safety.”

    that is well and good, but I do find it pretty condescending for some to insinuate that women are not keenly aware about the potentiality of rape or somehow blind to its consequences;
    like the effects of domestic violence or restrictions on reproductive health, It is pretty much assured that women know about it earlier and in a deeper way than many men ever can.

  47. You know what sucks about the “You’re Blaming The Victim!” brigade? They make it incredibly difficult to disseminate solid, common sense advice. People like timrrr try to remind folks to be careful and to think about your situation and your surroundings, and others jump down his throat claiming he’s “blaming the victim”. The ONLY thing this accomplishes is to make well-meaning people with good advice to share think twice about speaking up.

    For that reason only, Fuck You, ‘Victim-Blaming’ Criers.

  49. #46, I find it pretty condescending to put all women into the same bucket, whatever that may be. Some women are aware of their surroundings. Some women are unaware they’re pregnant until they give birth. Some women take personal responsibility for their experiences, some women believe that other people can make them feel a certain way and assume that other people know what they mean without having to say it.
    *You* may be keenly aware of the potentiality of rape. *I* may be keenly aware of the potentiality of harm in many forms and read “The Art of War” for fun. *Some* women are f*cking idiots who deliberately put themselves in harms way so that other people will rescue them or feel sorry for them. (I am not, in any way, talking about the woman in the story at this time, anyone who feels I am is wrong and can shut up) I have known women who do this, who fall apart so other people will put them together.

    “Women” are not any one thing. We are individuals who have different thoughts, different motives and different ways of dealing with the world. For you to assume everyone of any group shares your views, knowledge and motivations is hubris of the least constructive kind. Don’t lump me in with you, I don’t know you, I may not agree with you and you don’t get to tell me what I think, feel or should.

  50. @44 Sorry you feel condescended to; I agree that women in general know more about all those things, but that doesn’t mean a discussion can’t happen.

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