EVERETT – As the stranger beat her with a metal pipe, Theresa Lindberg could only think about her young son who stood nearby.
“Her biggest concern was he was going to attack our son,” the Everett woman’s husband, Jason Lindberg, said Tuesday. “We think he would have if the neighbors hadn’t hollered and he knew someone was watching him.”
A day after the attack, Jason Lindberg said he still doesn’t understand why the stranger chose to ambush his wife.
“We don’t know who he is. We believe we’ve seen him time to time in the area but we’ve never spoken to him,” Jason Lindberg said.
Everett police say they, too, don’t understand what motivated the attack.
Theresa Lindberg, 26, was recovering from her injuries Tuesday. She declined to speak with a reporter.
Her husband said she has a 4-inch gash on her head and her back is swollen where she was struck.
“It’s not as severe as we first thought. But she can’t even look out the front window. That’s how scared she is,” Lindberg said.
The man thought to be responsible for the attack appeared Tuesday in Everett District Court. A judge ordered Anthony Viscussi, 26, jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Viscussi was arrested for investigation of first-degree assault with a weapon and assault on a police officer. He was on probation with the state Department of Corrections for an armed robbery conviction.
He reportedly lives in an apartment near the Lindbergs.
On Monday afternoon, Theresa Lindberg met her 6-year-old son at a school bus stop about a half-block away from home in the 3800 block of Lombard Avenue. The pair were walking up to their house and she was reaching for her house keys when Viscussi allegedly jumped the fence.
He said “How are you doing ma’am?” and pulled the bar out from behind his back, Jason Lindberg said.
“She couldn’t even run. She didn’t have time to do anything,” he said.
Their young son witnessed the whole attack.
Viscussi allegedly struck Theresa Lindberg three or four times before some neighbors heard the commotion.
They yelled at Viscussi, who ran off and hid in some bushes, police said. An officer spotted him in a nearby alley. During the arrest, Viscussi fought with police and spat in one officer’s face, according to a police affidavit filed in court.
A neighbor across the street ran to Theresa Lindberg’s aid. She stayed until a medical crew arrived. Theresa Lindberg was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
The Lindbergs have lived in the neighborhood for about three years. Jason Lindberg said there has been the occasional disturbance but nothing as bad as Monday’s attack.
“Now my wife wants to leave the area,” Jason Lindberg said. “She is really scared.”
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
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