It’s Friday, the sun is out, and things are getting sloppy out on Seattle’s streets.
Seattle Police report that a pregnant woman got out of the passenger seat of a car at 5th and Pike, pulled a stun gun from her bra and hit a bike messenger with it two times out of what appears to be road rage.
The report says the messenger was crossing 5th in the crosswalk when a person driving a gray coupe stopped abruptly in the crosswalk and honked at him.
The messenger then kicked the car and continued to the sidewalk. That’s when the woman went after him with the stun gun. The man driving, who also had a stun gun, got out and swung at the messenger but apparently missed.
More details from the SPD Blotter:
Police are looking for a pregnant woman who pulled a stun gun out of her bra and attacked a bike messenger in downtown Seattle Friday morning.
Shortly after 11:15 AM, the bike messenger was crossing 5th Avenue in the crosswalk when a man driving a gray coupe pulled onto 5th Avenue, stopped abruptly in front of the crosswalk and honked at the bike messenger.
The messenger yelled at the driver, kicked the wheel well of the car—he later told officers he didn’t believe he caused any damage—and crossed the street.
As the messenger was standing on the sidewalk, a woman—who the messenger described as “pregnant”—climbed out of the passenger side of the car and started yelling at him.
The woman then reached into her bra, pulled out a stun gun and chased after the messenger, striking him twice in the face.
The male driver also got out of the car, pulled out his own stun gun and swung it at the victim.
The two suspects then ran back to their car and drove off.
Officers are investigating and are continuing to search for the suspects. The bike messenger was not seriously injured in the incident.
Comments
21 responses to “Police: Road raging pregnant woman attacks bike messenger with stun gun”
whoa
I hope the bike messenger is OK. I really do. But this is one of the most awesome sentences I’ve read in a while:
“Police are looking for a pregnant woman who pulled a stun gun out of her bra and attacked a bike messenger in downtown Seattle Friday morning.”
I will never kick the wheel well of the car of a pregnant woman with a stun gun in her bra in a crosswalk again.
[…] Courtesy of Richard Masoner of Cyclelicious, here’s a story I missed last night, as a very pregnant Seattle woman gets out of a car, pulls a stun gun out of her bra and shoots a […]
Uff da.
uff da, indeed
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Heh, maybe the woman in Ballard with a baby in her car that ran me out of my lane, yelled at me, then sped away weaving through traffic has decided to have another kid… and step up her game.
These people should be bringing their baby home from the hospital in a bakefiets, and not by choice.
Nothing justifies pulling a stun gun on a pedestrian, but there’s something missing from the statement, “in the crosswalk”, i.e., with the light or against the light?
Hey Breadbaker, for what my word is worth I was crossing with the light north across Pike, the car, a grey blue Kia sedan, was turning left off of fifth into me. I was on foot because I had just locked up my bike at city center and was crossing to Monorail Espresso to make a handoff to a car courier going to Bellevue. Not that I need to absolve myself but I didn’t realize this made news until a buddy sent me a link, I figured I could comment.
Wow. So, basically, you were a pedestrian crossing with the light, in a crosswalk?!
Yeah, exactly. the fact that they mentioned I was a bike messenger was actually irrelevant in this case. The couple who attacked me sure didn’t know I was a bike messenger because they attacked me right in front of monorail espresso where there were several other messengers that woulda had my back. Nothing went down though because I didn’t actually feel that threatened since it was a stun gun and not say a knife and so I didn’t “engage them” as you might say, I just kept backing up and turning the other cheek. You know it’s hard to bring yourself to hit a pregnant women.
Thanks for the added information. To me, the police should have been far more specific that you were in the crosswalk with the light, which is to say you were about as legally in the right to be where you were as a person can be, and that you are a bike messenger is irrelevant. Fifth Avenue in particular seems to encourage strange behavior. The number of times I’ve almost been run over crossing Fifth at Union or University with the light is legion (I’ve worked on Sixth for 30+ years and I bike or bus everyday). Fifth is so wide and being one way it looks like a drag strip with a traffic light at every corner, which is not an arrangement conducive to safe driving.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being a cyclist (or bike messenger)!
Yeah Clark, I didn’t even think twice that they referred to my job because I was certainly “on the clock” at the time. But once I started hearing comments on news outlets blaming me by default for recklessness on my bike I started thinking, why did they even mention I was a courier? Myself and other witnesses who gave statements made it VERY clear I was just walking across the street. Maybe it was because I came across as a scofflaw and a pariah. Although, I think of myself as polite. I guess it is more expected if a courier losses their temper at a car.
So, even when there’s a conflict between a driver and a pedestrian, they manage to leave out that bit of information and include the occupation of one of them to imply that “an evil cyclist deserved it”.
If you read this without knowing it says that “the bike messenger was crossing 5th Avenue in the crosswalk”. No mention of him walking through the crosswalk. Without saying so it makes us imagine that he was cycling through the crosswalk.
This needs a response. Why was he not referred to as a pedestrian? Why weren’t the occupations of those in the car used to refer to them? Why no mention of him walking through the crosswalk.
The real issue here for this blog, (as this is not a cycling related story,) is how they framed it to make it seem like it was.
Agreed. This is certainly a case of mass media trying to sensationalize and push people’s buttons with regards to what they want people to think of as the scourge of the evil bike rider. They do this not to inform, not to create positive change, but to bring in ad revenue. That is all what is called “news” is anymore, organizations trying to flare up emotions in an attempt to increase clicks and views to sell ads. More eyes looking means more ads sold, bottom line. It has about as much to do with journalism as a summer blockbuster movie.
To be clear, this was a Seattle PD report, not mass media.
That’s worse. Nearly any interaction with SPD I’ve had, or have heard other had, on a bike has been negative. That has got to change.
I’m sad no one got a license plate. These are obviously two people who are LOOKING for someone to attack.
A-holes.
[…] timing of this incident is very interesting. Just yesterday, a similar road rage story from Seattle caught our attention. In that story, a woman in a car “pulled a stun gun out of her […]