Woman raped near bus stop
August 29, 2007
Adapted from the Philadelphia Daily News
A young woman’s desperate, blood-curdling screams echoed through the neighborhood, jolting residents out of their early- morning slumber.
As the moon reddened from a full lunar eclipse, the 18-year-old woman's blood spilled in an alley. She had just been raped while waiting for a bus and apparently had cut herself with a knife while trying to fight off her attacker.
The woman's terrified shrieks drew several people out of their homes. A middle-age man rushed to her side, scared off the rapist, and carried the woman into a neighbor's house, where she sobbed uncontrollably, battered and bloodied, until police and medics arrived.
The rape left residents rattled, and several said they hoped to leave their drug-infested neighborhood.
Police investigators meanwhile tried to compile information on the rapist, eager to get the violent predator off the streets.
"It's unfortunate that there are always those out there that are going to take an opportunity if they can to hurt an innocent victim," said a policeman of the Special Victims Unit.
He said the attack occurred shortly before 6 a.m. The attacker skulked up behind the woman while she was waiting at a bus stop for her ride to work. He dragged her into a nearby alley, raped her and possibly robbed her, he said.
The victim was treated at the hospital and released.
"These are very difficult situations to deal with, because when you have a victim that is attacked from behind, it's hard to react," said the policeman.
"The girl was hysterical. There was blood on her hand. She said she tried to use a knife to fight him off, and she ended up getting cut," said a neighbor.
"I felt so bad. She was so young. Her clothes were a mess and she just kept sobbing and sobbing and sobbing."
The woman said her neighborhood is rife with crime and drugs. "Someone broke into my house over the summer," she said. "My son and I want to move."
Other residents expressed similar sentiments.
"I can't even begin to imagine what that girl went through," said another neighbor. "I mean, it just gives me goosebumps just thinking about it," she said, tears welling in her eyes. |
