Beaten UW student says she yelled for help but no one stopped

The 22-year-old woman who was bludgeoned with a hammer near the University of Washington last week said she screamed for help several times during the attack but no one responded.

Several cars drove by as the woman was attacked by a stranger last Tuesday near Northeast 47th Street and 18th Avenue Northeast, but no one stopped, according to an account of the attack the victim gave to Mary Erickson.

She even pounded on the door of a nearby rooming house immediately after the attack but nobody answered, said Erickson, who has been sponsoring the woman since she moved to Seattle four years ago from war-torn Rwanda, where her entire family was slain.

"She screamed for help. She saw all types of cars passing by," Erickson said. "She's very fearful. She's traumatized."

No one has been arrested.

The injured woman was expected to have plastic surgery at Harborview Medical Center today to repair her shattered cheekbone; she already has had surgery on her fractured skull, Erickson said. Her injuries will keep her from returning this quarter to the University of Washington, where she is a student.

Erickson said the woman told her she didn't know the man who attacked her in a neighborhood where about 6,000 students live north of the UW. Erickson asked that the woman's name not be published because her attacker hasn't been arrested.

"I think it will take awhile for her to build that trust and be out on her own," Erickson said.

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

According to Seattle police, the woman left her dorm room around 7 a.m. to move her Toyota Camry. After the attack, the woman pulled herself up from the ground, went to a nearby building and pounded on the door, Erickson said. When nobody answered, the woman got into her car and drove to the north campus entrance at 17th Avenue Northeast and asked a parking attendant for help.

"She realized she had been hurt badly and that she needed help right away," Erickson said.

The woman has made vast improvements since being hospitalized in critical condition with head injuries and a broken tailbone, Erickson said. She is walking around and has briefly talked with police, Erickson said.

Seattle police are asking anyone with information on the attack to call detectives at 206-684-5550.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294