SNOHOMISH — A man has been arrested in connection with a sexual assault in Snohomish last week.
Police say a 22-year-old woman fought off the attacker.
The suspect is 36 and described as homeless. Police are awaiting DNA testing results to see if evidence connects him to the crime. In the meantime, he has been booked into the Snohomish County Jail on suspicion of second-degree rape. His bail was set at $500,000 during a court hearing Thursday afternoon. No charges have been filed.
The woman was walking to work before dawn May 3. A man grabbed her from behind along Bickford Avenue. He reportedly forced her to the ground. They struggled, and she kicked him in the face, causing him to fall over a retaining wall, police said. He fell about six feet to a parking lot below.
The woman ran away. She flagged down a passing car and used the driver’s cellphone to call police.
Video surveillance from nearby businesses didn’t capture the attack. However, a camera two blocks south recorded her running away, according to court papers.
A police sketch of the attacker was distributed in hopes of generating tips.
On Monday, a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy saw a man he thought matched the suspect’s description near U.S. 2 and 88th Street SE in unincorporated Snohomish. The man was wearing a hooded tan-and-brown plaid jacket as described by the woman.
The deputy offered him a ride to Monroe. Along the way, they chatted. The man reportedly said he had been in Snohomish last week. When asked if he had heard about the attack, he said he doesn’t go to the part of Snohomish where the attack occurred, according to police.
The deputy dropped him off in Monroe and watched as he gathered his belongings and took off at a “near-running pace.”
The man was arrested Wednesday after the woman reportedly identified him as her attacker. She picked out his photograph when shown it as part of a montage, police said.
The man told a judge during a hearing Thursday that he had never met the woman before.
“I want my case dismissed right now,” he said.
The suspect is a familiar face to sheriff’s office deputies.
He was arrested for allegedly assaulting family members in April 2016 and March of this year, according to police. They did not press charges.
In 2008, he was charged with assaulting two Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies, who were responding to the home he shared with his parents. The couple reported that he’d punched holes in walls and threw food around.
One deputy sustained a broken ankle during the scuffle.
Questions were raised about the man’s mental health and he was sent to Western State Hospital.
The case eventually went to trial in 2011 and a jury acquitted him of the assault charges.
Caitlin Tompkins: 425-339-3192; ctompkins@heraldnet.com.
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