“Dear PoPville,
Last night I (38, F) was walking home through Dupont circle at about 8:50pm. As I approached the Northeast corner of the park, there was a man standing by a bench who slammed something (sounded like a brick or heavy rock) into the bench. It appeared that he was having a mental health episode or was in an altered state. I started walking more quickly and then began to run when I saw him winding up from about 25 feet away – he then threw the brick/rock at me and
missed. As I crossed the road, a police car happened to approach and I waved him down. The man in the park saw this and began yelling that he was going to kill me. The officer remained in his vehicle – I later understood it may be protocol to wait for another officer to arrive before engaging with someone behaving erratically, but I felt quite vulnerable still being alone outside.
He asked me if I wanted to press charges which I declined, but he didn’t say anything else like indicate if/how the situation would be handled. Since I was still outside with no one else around and I felt unsafe with the man still yelling aggressively, I continued home. I’m not sure what happened after that, but sharing as a reminder to be aware of your surroundings, and maybe consider taking an Uber at night. Sigh.”