Burien mom says she was attacked, sexually assaulted in grocery store parking lot

Angela said she was assaulted while putting her kids in the car outside a Safeway in Burien last week.

She said she should have listened to her 3-year-old son, who said he was scared.

“No, mommy, I’m scared,” Angela recalled her son saying. “I don’t know why he said that. It was really weird. I drove around and parked and didn’t see anything weird.”

Angela told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show that she popped her trunk and noticed a man walking by on her right side, but assumed he was going into the store.

“All of a sudden he was right up on me just looking down at me,” she said. “It was just horrifying. I’m standing there with my little 1-year-old in the cart and holding my 3-year-old’s hand and was just thinking, ‘What am I going to do?'”

He told her to put the kids in the car, which she did because she thought they’d be safe in there, but kept her body wedged in the door for fear he would grab her keys and take off with her children.

“He started to grab at me while I was putting my little girl in the car. He started to pull at my shorts and stuff like that and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what is going to happen right now, right next to my baby’s car seat?” Angela said.

She was able to get the attention of two passing men, who she said called 911. They didn’t come to help fight off the man, but Angela guesses it’s because it looked like the suspect was trying to signal he had a weapon.

Angela says her tactic was to stall and play dumb. She ended up hopping into the passenger’s seat and locking the doors when the man was moving a cart behind the vehicle, presumably to keep her from leaving.

Dori says police in Burien found and arrested the man about an hour later. He’s expected to be charged with sexual assault with attempt of rape, and possibly an attempt of child abduction.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.