The 25-year-old who was visiting from Denver, Colorado was able to fight off her attacker and run to a nearby business, and one of the employees who helped her, is speaking to NBC5 News.
“She was literally trying to catch her breath,” Johnathan Welch says, “and you know scared, she was shaking, she was crying.”
Johnathan Welch was working at Crater Lake Mazda Monday, when a young woman came running through the car lots service doors.
“She said someone tried to attack her on the greenway,” Welch recalled.
According to police, the flight attendant was jogging a stretch of the bike path when a man on a bike continually approached her and made sexual comments. They say she attempted to run a different way, but he passed her again and she eventually lost him in the brush ahead.
“He jumped out startled her, and was running alongside of her trying to engage her in conversation, again making inappropriate comments,” Lieutenant Mike Budreau of the Medford Police Department says, “he began touching her and grabbing at her.”
The woman was able to push him away, and police say he tried to chase her but she outran him. Based on a description given by the victim, police arrested Samuel Boswell an hour later. He was charged with sex abuse, 2 counts of attempted kidnapping, possession of meth and a parole violation.
Police are calling the attack disturbing.
“For an innocent person minding their own business to be accosted in this way is very unusual and obviously very concerning,” Lt. Budreau says.
Police are urging runners to bring their cell phone and call 911 if they ever feel uncomfortable. They say it isn’t a bad idea to carry mace too.
Meanwhile, Boswell made his first appearance in court Tuesday afternoon, where a judge set bail at $250,000 dollars. He told a judge during his arraignment this incident did not happen and the charges are “manufactured lies”.
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