Police say attack on UW student was "random"

Authorities say that a 22-year-old UW student who was severely beaten after parking her car off campus on Tuesday appears to have been attacked by a stranger.

University of Washington Assistant Police Chief Ray Wittmier said that about a half-dozen witnesses to the attack near Northeast 47th Street and 18th Avenue Northeast, in a neighborhood where about 6,000 students live, have come forward.

While Wittmier didn't know if the witnesses heard the woman's screams, or saw the beating, he said the attack has the department on edge.

"We get very concerned when we believe there is a random type of assault," he said. "We don't have any reason to believe, at this point, that the person who did this knows the victim whatsoever."

No arrests have been made, and the university has only described her attacker as a man.

On Thursday, the victim was speaking with friends and her facial swelling was decreasing. The woman moved to Seattle about four years ago after fleeing from war-torn Rwanda, where her family was slain, said Mary Erickson, a Seattle florist who is the woman's sponsor.

The victim, a graduate of Garfield High School, is in her first year at the UW. She is majoring in engineering, Erickson said.

"She is great. She is a wonderful person. She couldn't be any sweeter," Erickson said Thursday, speaking from near the woman's bed at Harborview Medical Center.

Erickson asked that in order to protect the victim's safety, the woman's name not be published until after police make an arrest. She said the woman has not yet talked about the attack or been interviewed by police because "it's too soon."

The woman left her dorm room around 7 a.m. Tuesday dressed in a T-shirt, pajama bottoms and a coat to move her Toyota Camry from an on-campus spot, said Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson.

"We believe it was her habit on a daily basis to move her vehicle from an on-campus parking lot, out to the street," Jamieson said, adding that many students do this to avoid getting a parking ticket.

After the attack, the woman drove to the north campus entrance at 17th Avenue Northeast and asked a parking attendant for help. Patricia Hoot, a campus traffic guide, said that when she walked up to the victim's car, the woman mumbled the words "beaten" and "please help me."

Blood poured from the woman's head, her jaw looked like it had been broken and the contents of the woman's purse were in disarray inside her car, Hoot said.

Both Seattle and UW police are investigating. Seattle police are hoping additional witnesses will come forward. They are asking anyone with information to call detectives at 206-684-5550.

Seattle police said they have not increased patrols in the University District in the wake of the attack.

The student's attack comes about a week after the stabbing death of another Seattle woman while she was also walking alone.

Shannon Harps, 31, was walking home from the grocery store around 7 p.m. on Dec. 31 when she was attacked, according to Seattle police. People in her Capitol Hill neighborhood called 911 after hearing screams. The Sierra Club volunteer organizer died that night.

Though detectives are "looking at several people" in connection with Harps' death, no arrests have been made, Jamieson said.

Jamieson said investigators do not believe the two cases are related.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com