Hunted

"Somebody please call 911!" Those were the words shouted by a middle-aged woman with blood running down her face as she burst into the Starbucks at 511 F Street on March 15 at 8:10 a.m.

I was in the upstairs loft when the woman came in crying and bleeding. After she calmed down, she told us that a man she knew who recently got out of jail was hitting her repeatedly until some of her neighbors came to see about the commotion. The interruption allowed her time to run down the street to the nearby Starbucks, where we called authorities.

As we waited for police to arrive, we noticed a tall African-American man about 6´4˝ and 260 pounds across the street; he looked as though he was searching for someone. Soon he walked to just outside the Starbucks and looked into the shop through the glass. The woman caught sight of the man and she started shaking frantically and crying more.

Five police officers arrived in three squad cars. Witnesses identified the tall man standing right in front of Starbucks as the possible suspect. Police immediately arrested him with no struggle and took him into custody. The supect said very little besides where to find his identification on his person.

The victim's neighbor showed up, and he confirmed the woman's account based on what he had heard and seen (the victim's front door had been open when he went to check on her).

Paramedics were called to the scene; they wrapped and bandaged the woman’s cuts and stopped the bleeding from a gash on the top front part of her head. She was then walked out of the Starbucks to the ambulance, her shirt stained with her blood.