The man accused of attacking a woman on a trail in Renton on September 12th is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on charges of assault, rape, and robbery- all in the second degree.
“To know that he’s now been caught, I know, will put a lot of relief on people’s minds,” said Lyndsey Patterson as she walked along a Renton soccer field.
Patterson’s reaction was typical of those KIRO 7 spoke to, after they heard a suspect had been arrested in the attack that happened not far from soccer fields.
Court documents show the victim told police she was jogging while her son was at soccer practice when a stranger near SW 27th St and Naches Ave SW called out to her.
Concerned, she started running as fast as she could toward a Sounders facility. But the man, who was riding a bicycle, caught up to her.
She told police the man pushed her down and began strangling her, as loose rocks on the ground cut and bruised her skin. She tried to ask him questions and told him she had children, but it only made him angrier. Fearing for her life, she fought back and managed to knock off his glasses. Police later said DNA from the glasses matched the suspect’s DNA.
The attacker ran off when a bystander approached. The victim told police he had stolen her fitness watch and cellphone during the assault.
Nakisha McCarty says warnings about the attack went out quickly, “Yah, I did I heard about it through our local soccer club, since my daughter practices in that area a lot and so that’s how I found out about it.”
As word spread through the local soccer community, it also reached another group of neighbors.
“A lot of us use the trail right over here,” said Jason, who confirmed that members of the homeless community alerted each other about the danger.
After police released surveillance images of a possible suspect, a woman who lives in a tiny home shelter in Tukwila told police a man matching the description also lived there and often wore the purple hoodie pictured in the surveillance images. Tukwila Police arrested 23-year-old Thomas Elijah Moss soon afterward.
Jason, who asked us not to use his last name, praised the woman in the shelter who notified police. “You’ve got to stand up for what’s right,” he said.
Moss is being held at the King County Jail on one million dollars bail.