SNOHOMISH — He dragged her into some bushes, ripped off her pants and was undoing his own belt when she kicked him in the face.
The kick sent him tumbling off a retaining wall to a parking lot about six feet below. She frantically searched for her cellphone, but stopped when she heard the man say, “Oh you wanna (expletive) play like that,” as he walked up the embankment toward her.
She ran south on Bickford Avenue. The man chased her for a short distance but he disappeared. She waved down a passing motorist for help.
Prosecutors allege that the assailant was Paul Andrew Williams, a 36-year-old man whose last address is listed in Lake Stevens. Williams may have been homeless at the time of the incident.
Earlier this week, Williams was charged with attempted second-degree rape. Questions have been raised about whether Williams is able to assist with his own defense. An arraignment was postponed until Williams can be evaluated. He remains held on $500,000 bail.
In asking for high bail, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Robert Grant wrote, “Just because Williams did not complete the rape he intended, does not diminish his lack of dangerousness. What it demonstrates is (the woman) was equally determined not to be a rape victim.”
Williams doesn’t have any prior felony convictions. He has a handful of misdemeanors, the majority of which are for being a minor in possession.
The 22-year-old woman told police that she was walking to her job around 3 a.m. May 3. She was carrying an umbrella and listening to music on headphones. She felt someone wrap her in a bear hug from behind. He dragged her away from sidewalk and into some bushes. He threw her to the ground and climbed on top of her, Grant wrote in court papers.
She told investigators she didn’t smell alcohol on his breath but she thought maybe he was drunk because he was slurring words and seemed uncoordinated.
The woman screamed for help. The stranger demanded she shut up and started taking off her pants. His attention was diverted as he tried to remove his belt. That’s when the woman kicked him, saving herself.
She worked with a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy to create a sketch of the assailant. Police also tracked down surveillance footage from a nearby business park. The video shows the woman walking around 3:17 a.m. Five minutes later she is seen, half-clothed, running down the sidewalk, waving her hands.
Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy on May 7 stopped a man in the 400 block of Avenue D in Snohomish. The man resembled the sketch and was wearing clothes similar to what the woman described for her attacker, according to court papers. The man was identified as Williams. The deputy took several photographs of Williams and forwarded them to detectives.
The next day, a sheriff’s deputy was called to check on a person near U.S. 2 and 88th Street SE, just outside of town. The deputy had created the sketch of the suspect. He offered Williams a ride to Monroe and asked the man “vague” questions about the case, according to court papers.
Williams reportedly offered that he’d been in Snohomish the week before. He told the deputy he doesn’t go to Bickford Avenue. The deputy dropped Williams off in Monroe.
The woman allegedly identified Williams as her attacker from a group of photographs, Grant wrote.
Williams was arrested and questioned for a short time before he asked for an attorney. Detectives obtained a search warrant to collect a DNA sample from him. Court papers don’t mention the results of any forensic tests.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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