Natala la la la ... ... ...

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Monday, July 19, 2004

shaken (i'm ok) 

i was attacked tonight (at about 22:35) on my walk home from meeting friends for dinner and coffee. I am not hurt and i feel ok, just a bit spooked. I was walking home on Church Street -- the street where i live, in fact I was only three blocks from my house. A man followed me and then jumped/lunged/grabbed me. I screamed (a loud piercing scream) and he ran off. I then called the police and spent about an hour with them relaying what happened and helping with the search.

i've never been attacked before and the whole thing has me fairly shaken up. My stomach feels raw from the adreneline or something. I think there's still a slight shiver within me as I think about what happened. But i wanted to write down my observations before they became murky.

- i think i knew the guy would attack me when I heard his footsteps behind me speeding up. it struck me as really odd, but i didn't know what to do to normalize the situation. i decided to call someone, i was thinking of calling Kyle, but then thought maybe it was too late to call him and then i stopped and the guy was right behind me, which spooked me. I let him pass me by and apologized for being spooked. I remember being really concious of not wanting to make any sort of racially stereotypical thought that he seemed sketchy and so i extended more politeness then needed. he walked ahead of me and i started to flip through my phonebook. Then he asked me if i knew some address and stepped in closer to me, i shook my head and said something about being unfamiliar with the neighborhood. he then lunged for me and grabbed my waist with his right arm. I screamed. He let go of me and ran off down View street. He ran fast.

- he was a mexican with darker, weathered skin. he wasn't that much taller than me, so maybe 5'8" and he was wearing a plaid flannel shirt in fall tones with the arms ripped off. he had relatively dark skin, a stockyish body and short hair that was longish / unkept. I wish i had been able to capture more specifically what he looked like.

- when the policeman came he was really nice. he wanted all the details so that he could document everything onto these pieces of paper that he kept in the velcro-sealed pockets that were all over his suit. He had all these paper clip contracptions as well to keep track of everything.

- the police wanted to know if i would prosecute the guy if they found him. I wasn't sure at first, but then after 1/2 a second of thinking about it, I knew that I would absolutely press charges. It just seemed so wrong what he did. it is NOT okay to jump people while they are walking down the street to their home! i am angry about what he did, but i am more annoyed that now i'll feel like i need to walk around my sleepy neighborhood with someone. I used to go running at night, around 22:00, because i loved the coolness and the quiet of the streets. that seems like a really stupid thing to do in light of tonight.

- the police found a suspect but he wasn't a match in the end. they said that if they don't find the guy tonight that my case beomces a "cold case" which changes the arrest procedures or something.

- the policeman gave me a ride home. I sat in the backseat, which was interesting -- the seat is plastic and there are no comforts.

I have more to write on this, but this has been an incredibly draining experience. I need to sleep.

¤ posted by Natala : 7/19/2004 12:04:00 AM


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