Female jogger
fights off brutal sex attacker
13 March
2017
A Seattle
jogger was left bloodied, bruised - and triumphant - after using self-defence tactics
to fend off a bathroom attacker.
Kelly Herron
scratched, kicked and screamed at alleged assailant Gary Steiner, 40, at a
Golden Gardens Park restroom on Sunday afternoon, according to the Daily Mail.
The
36-year-old was training for a marathon and had stopped to use the bathroom
when she felt Steiner, a registered sex offender, sneak up behind her. At that
point, according to police, he assaulted her.
Herron said
she began to fight back, yelling out "not today m***** f*****".
Eventually she managed to escape from Steiner's grasp and trapped the homeless
man in the restroom until police arrived.
The jogger
shared a photo on Instagram of injuries from her "biggest running
nightmare" but credited her safety to a self-defence class she took three
weeks earlier.
She said,
"My face is stitched, my body is bruised, but my spirit is intact."
"I
fought for my life screaming, clawing his face, punching back, and desperately
trying to escape his grip - never giving up. I was able to lock him in the
bathroom until police arrived.
"Thankfully
I just took a self-defence class offered at my work and utilised all of
it."
She added to
Kiro 7, "I'm really grateful I survived. I was screaming at him... being
loud and not afraid. I mean you are afraid, but you're letting him know 'you
are not taking me down today. You are not going to win this fight'.
"That
was the only thing that was motivating me ... I cannot be raped by this guy in
this place."
Steiner was
taken by police shortly after Herron escaped and was helped by a witness who
heard her screams and called officials.
She told
police "she felt like she was going to be raped" and Steiner was
charged on Wednesday with attempted second-degree rape and second-degree
assault with sexual motivation, according to The Seattle Times.
Police said
Steiner confessed that while he was waiting in the bathroom, two other women
entered the space but he didn't attack them.
But when
Herron was drying her hands, he worked up the nerve to approach her, knock her
down and repeatedly punch her in the face in an attempted rape, according to
police.
The charging
documents state that Steiner told police that he wanted them to kill them and
an officer wrote, "The defendant represents a severe danger to the
community.
"His
predatory attack on a female in the middle of the day represents a brazen
willingness to assault without concern for getting caught."
The paper
reported that the man was convicted in Arizona for sexually assaulting several
women in 1999, indecent exposure in 2008 and convicted of criminal mischief
with a deadly weapon in Clark County, Washington, in 2015.
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