BURIEN, Wash. — Disturbing surveillance video shows the moment a man attacked his neighbor with a baseball bat in Burien.
The victim told KIRO 7 she is going to be okay, but no longer feels safe in her neighborhood.
Linda Irish said she, her wife and their 10-year-old were loading up the car on July 11 when the man across the street started yelling from inside his house.
She said she walked into the street, yelled at him to be quiet and got attacked.
“The pain was, like, searing,” Irish said.
A home security camera captured the neighbor, identified by deputies as Andy Dimitrov, walking toward Irish. As he approaches, he is seen pulling a baseball bat out from under his jacket and hitting her on the side, the video shows.
“He reared back like he was playing for the M’s and just swung, and caught me right below my scapula,” she said.
Dimitrov is then seen walking back toward his house and getting into a car with a man deputies identified as his father while screaming about getting a prescription and going to jail.
Deputies said Dimitrov drove away with his father and threw the bat out the window, damaging a parked car.
According to investigators, Dimitrov then called 911 three times, admitting to the attack and threatening to attack officers and burn city hall.
Court documents state he was later tased and arrested at a sports bar, where he reportedly shoved a different woman to the ground.
“They found him quite a ways away at a bar, where he had already assaulted someone else,” Irish said.
Irish, who is a lesbian, told KIRO 7 Dimitrov used anti-gay slurs against her in the seconds before the attack. She wants to see a hate crime charge filed.
In a probable cause certification, a King County deputy working the case also stated the incident met the criteria for a hate crime.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office found there was not enough evidence for a hate crime.
“If prosecutors could charge a hate crime they would, but there is insufficient evidence at this point with the requirements under state law,” Casey McNerthney, a KCPAO spokesperson, said in a statement. “If there is additional information that is referred later, we can re-review the case.”
KIRO 7 went to Dimitrov’s home to hear what his father, Angel Dimitrov, had to say about the situation.
“She doesn’t know who she is,” Angel Dimitrov said. “Lady or man?”
He acknowledged that he does not like homosexuality, but denied that Irish’s orientation had anything to do with the incident.
“No, he did not,” Angel Dimitrov said. “I can say 100%, my son did nothing. She provoked him.”
He blamed the incident on his son’s mental health issues.
“He is crazy,” he said. “What do you call it, mental problem?”
Irish told KIRO 7 the situation has left her and her family scared, and this is not the first incident she has had with Dimitrov.
“I need him to not come home. His dad has bailed him out and brought him home repeatedly,” she said. “I need him to not be here. I need him to not be in this neighborhood because we fear retaliation.”
Andy Dimitrov is charged with third-degree assault and third-degree harassment. He is currently undergoing a mental evaluation.
Irish’s family has started a Gofundme to help pay for a lawyer, medical bills and a fence she is building around her house because of the incident.