Santa Rosa Police Hunt For Man Who Stabbed, Sexually Assaulted Woman

[Luckylove]

http://www.ktvu.com/news/15250799/detail.html

[mom2colin]

Scary. That's where my parents and sister live.

[khanson]

I just heard that on the news. So scary. Things like that are not supposed to happen here, yk? Makes me nervous to go to the store now!

[erin anne]

Parking lots are notorious for being places dangerous for women. I've always read to NEVER let them take you to another location..how scary for her. You don't think things like this happen in Sonoma County, but I'm sure they happen more than you think.

I was robbed at gunpoint and tied up at my job in Petaluma (on North McDowell) when I wa 19. I was VERY lucky that I wasn't assaulted. The guy who robbed me, one moth later, ended up kidnapping a real estate agent and raping her. :(

This also reminds me of the Oprah episode last week where they talked about the book "The Gift of Fear" and about trusting your women's intuition. I KNEW something was off about the guy, and I didn't listen to that voice in my head. Now I totally listen to my intuition and I am very weary of men who appoach me and try to start a conversation.

[lornabrown]

I thought about the Gift of Fear right away when I read this. We have to listen to our intuition. For those of you who didn't see the Oprah episode, the book author pointed out how animals will flea when they just sense that something is wrong. Women on the other hand will justify the situation and ignore their gut feelings.

[Lorah]

Parking lots are notorious for being places dangerous for women. I've always read to NEVER let them take you to another location..how scary for her. You don't think things like this happen in Sonoma County, but I'm sure they happen more than you think.

I was robbed at gunpoint and tied up at my job in Petaluma (on North McDowell) when I wa 19. I was VERY lucky that I wasn't assaulted. The guy who robbed me, one moth later, ended up kidnapping a real estate agent and raping her. :(

This also reminds me of the Oprah episode last week where they talked about the book "The Gift of Fear" and about trusting your women's intuition. I KNEW something was off about the guy, and I didn't listen to that voice in my head. Now I totally listen to my intuition and I am very weary of men who appoach me and try to start a conversation.

OMG ERIN! I'm sorry you had to go through that! I'm very glad that nothing worse happened!


I use to live right up the street from that Safeway! I went there all the time. I'm SO glad I never had to deal with that type of situation!

Gosh, it is so important to listen to that voice and if something doesn't seem right to get out of there fast! I think many women, especially when young, don't listen to that voice as often as they should. I know that I didn't one time, and wished I had.

[Lynette]

OMG Erin, as hollow as it sounds, that was "lucky" :(

I had a friend/co-worker who had someone come up behind her at her apartment building while her arms were full of grocery bags and put a knife to her throat and then pushed her into her apartment who after the fact said the same thing, she saw the guy and thought he was creepy but didn't want to look like a bitch so didn't get back to the safety of her car.

For years I have taught Salina to listen to he instincts and not do the whole "respect your elders" thing because kids are even worse than women when it comes to this stuff and never never let them take you anywhere but I could see in the spur of the moment you just do what you are told because you think if you are "good" they will let you go. I hope they find the bastard and he gets his come uppance in prison.

[Luckylove]

OMG she had her kid in the car the whole time. What a total scumbag (for lack of a harsher word).

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080208/NEWS/797086764/1033/NEWS01

[meeg124]

What a sh*tty comment for the police department to make though... “That’s why she got in the car with him, or allowed this to take place,” police Sgt. Lisa Banayat said. I'm sure that the assault victim wants to know that she "allowed" this to happen.

[Colleen&Kail]

omg how scary! i hope they find him. kinda wierd i had some wierdo appraoch me in a safeway parking lot too....the one off of mendocinio.

erin that must have been a horrible experience im sorry you had to go through that.

[erin anne]

Thanks ladies...

Yes, I will never work alone ever again! this guy came in once, chit-chatted (and basically cased the place) came back a half an hour later pretending that he wanted to buy a tuxedo....so I was directly dealing with this guy for 20 min. before he tackled me. Man, it was the most surreal experience, I felt like I was out of my body..in total disbelief. Like everyone else said..they don't want to be a bitch so they poo-poo away that voice inside that says "Get the hell out of there!"
I was actually going to be a character witness on the victim's behalf (the trial was in San Diego). She was a real estate agent, married mother of two. He asked her to show her a house, then he kidnapped her and took her to Arizona....because at one point she said they "made love" intead of him raping her, so they asked me to testify how intense/creepy he was. I was so ready to face him (he did fondle my bottom and said some creepy stuff, but I asked him to leave, an miraculously he did). They convicted him w/o me needing to fly down there. He was a career criminal. Took my purse, taunting me that "Now I know where you live, and you better tell them it's some black guy"(he was a middle aged white guy)

I felt really guilty about what happened to the other lady...it so easily could have been me. I remember he said "Where's the back door to this place? and I said "there is none" and he said, "Well your lucky, because if there was, you'd be in the back seat of my car." :(

The whole incident (emotionally) didn't come to a head till 10 years later, while living in a crappy part of Sacramento, my DH gets robbed at gunpoint in our carport of our apartment complex...what are the odds!...well I TOTALLY freak (not to mention I was super stressed going through my credential program) and they diagnose me with PTSD.

So the moral of the story is LISTEN TO YOUR INTUITION!!

Thanks for listening ladies, it helps to put it out there.