MONROE — A Monroe man tried to kill his girlfriend by crashing his Subaru into a gate at Al Borlin Park, then abandoned her as she crawled from the wreck, according to police reports filed in court.
Monroe police were alerted that a man was screaming at his girlfriend in a red Subaru around 8:45 p.m. Saturday, outside a 7-Eleven.
Minutes later officers located the car. It had crashed into a concrete barrier at the park entrance. The driver was seen running away. Officers found the woman about 40 yards away. Her face was covered in dried blood from an old injury, and fresh blood from striking the windshield.
She told police her boyfriend, 30, hit her earlier at a laundromat. They were homeless, living out of the Subaru, and he’d gotten mad at her while they were parked on Main Street. He demanded that she get out. He hit her in the mouth and dragged her outside, she reported. She climbed back inside the car, and reportedly told him, “You might as well just kill me.”
“Okay, that’s what we’re going to do,” he replied, according to police reports.
He drove toward the park. The Subaru’s tires ripped through loose gravel and grass, leaving tracks with no signs of swerving or braking, according to police. The woman reported he sped up as they neared impact. Neither of them wore seat belts, she said. Police noted she had deep cuts to her forehead.
She told police she met the man about a year ago at a halfway house. He’d gone to jail once before for allegedly assaulting her. She reported he’d bought the Subaru weeks earlier, and that he’d been “punching out windows in the car instead of my face.”
Photos of the crashed Subaru show the broken windows, with clothes and debris scattered on the car seats.
The woman told an officer her boyfriend beat her often in the past.
“He punches me in the side of the head and stuff,” she told police. Many of the alleged assaults had not been reported.
Officers tracked down the man the next day. He stated he ran because he was scared.
He reportedly said he lost control of the car, and tried to swerve out of the way. The straight path of tire marks contradicted his story, police wrote.
Court records show the man has served years in prison for burglary, auto theft and other crimes.
He was booked into jail Sunday for investigation of vehicular assault, felony harassment, hit-and-run and fourth-degree domestic violence assault.
Everett District Court Judge Anthony Howard found probable cause on each count.
The judge set bail at $50,000.
The man was still behind bars Tuesday.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
Domestic violence help
If you or someone you know needs help related to domestic violence, contact Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County’s 24-hour confidential hotline at 425-252-2873.
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