Gresham police say stranger sexually assaulted woman at bus stop 'in broad daylight'

GRESHAM, Ore. — Gresham police said a man sexually assaulted a woman at a bus stop in broad daylight. The woman said the stranger cornered her and grabbed her before she fought him off.

Capt. Claudio Grandjean, a Gresham police spokesman, said the crime happened near the intersection of Northeast Division Street and Kane or 257th Drive

"She didn't know who this person was," Grandjean explained. "It was just a stranger who came up to her."

The victim said at around 8:30 p.m. Saturday the man pulled money out of his wallet and asked in broken English if she wanted to do something explicit.

On Facebook, she said, "I, of course, replied no and told him to get away from me. He cornered me in the little bus cubicle so I pushed him as hard as I could away from me and he then grabbed my butt and ran/walked off quickly behind the 7-Eleven towards Division."

"She didn't have the opportunity to report right at the moment. She had to go home and report it," Grandjean said. "But when she did report it the officers that responded, they canvassed different businesses in the area and checked to see if there was video or witnesses who might've seen what occurred. They weren't able to get any useful video or witnesses."

The victim described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his early 20s with no facial hair, wearing a pink shirt and jeans. She said he had a thin build and stands about 5 feet, 6 inches tall.

A KATU reporter asked Grandjean if there were any other takeaways.

"In these situations, it's really difficult to give someone a tip and say, well, you should have done this or this could have been done better," he said. "She's in broad daylight and she doesn't know who this person is. She did the right thing in resisting him because that caused him to take off."

Grandjean also said attacks like it are very rare and that the vast majority of sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone known to the victim.

The latest statistics from the FBI show the rate of rapes reported to law enforcement jumped by 10.5 percent from 2016 to 2017 in Oregon. Nationwide, the agency said during that time there was a 1.8 percent increase.

The hike is larger than the previous one from 2015 to 2016 when Oregon saw a 2.5 percent increase in rape reports.

Grandjean said the increase is due in part to a change in how the U.S. Justice Department now defines rape.

The old definition was, “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.”

But in 2013 it changed to, "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

Grandjean said the spike in rape reports is also likely due to a change in culture.

"Greater awareness," he told a KATU reporter. "I think people might be more likely to report, but we knew there would be a spike when the definitions of rape created a bigger net for what constitutes rape."

In Oregon, the FBI says just about 7 percent of reported rapes are committed by strangers.