“Dear PoPville,
I wanted to send this as a sort of community warning to folks. Yesterday, 8/31, I was assaulted while walking in Mount Pleasant just before 6pm. I was headed East on Irving St between Mt. Pleasant and 16th St and a man going the other direction was very intentionally walking down the middle of the sidewalk. When I tried to get out of his way and pass around him, he sped up and very deliberately went toward me- I tried even more to get out of his way by angling my body as close to the other direction as possible. Before I could process what was happening, he bodyslammed me into the fence so hard I lost my footing and nearly fell over. I was shoved both into the fence and into the older woman walking just behind me.
The man then ricocheted off after we both screamed and he went toward the bus stop. There were a lot of people around, and everyone stopped and there was a tall dude who yelled something like “what the hell did you do that for” (or something similar) at my attacker for his actions. Our attacker then started walking back towards us, pointing at me and yelling “THAT broad was asking for it, she was walking AT me” and was just going off on a rant and yelling and pointing.
He was waiting for the bus, I think, at that point. He was a Black male, about maybe 5’6, with shortish braids/twists, brown eyes, medium dark complexion. Stay away from him please for your own safety. I want to say thank you to everyone who yelled at him for his behavior- I think if the people hadn’t yelled at him, it would have escalated and he would have tried to attack me again.
I’d like for everyone to just be super careful out there- people are angry and hurting- some people have mental health or substance abuse problems and let’s all just be a little kinder to one another. I’m pretty shaken up and miraculously not very bruised from the incident.”