Ugh. In a stark reminder that one in five American women experience sexual assault, Portland Police are investigating the sexual assault on a Portland State University student.

From their announcement:

On Tuesday December 20, 2011, at 3:20 p.m., Portland Police officers assigned to Central Precinct responded to the report of a female screaming in the lower area of the Portland State University Academic and Student Recreation Center. As officers were enroute, Portland State University Public Safety advised that they were enroute to the call also.

Officers learned that an unidentified male suspect followed the 27-year-old female victim into the restroom, exposed himself and sexually assaulted the woman by touching her in a sexual manner. The suspect then fled the area on foot. The victim is a student at Portland State.

The suspect is described as an unknown race male, lighter skinned, described as in his 30s, approximately 5’08” to 5’09” tall, medium build.

Good on the victim for reporting the crime. Hopefully they can catch the guy. Police have gathered surveillance video of the suspect—it’s a little hard to really see what he looks like from the footage, but keep an eye out.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

8 replies on “Sexual Assault Reported at PSU”

  1. I used to work in the building right across from there, and can attest that there are some major creeps/freaks who wander in and out of those bathrooms. One guy wiped shit all over the bathrooms on three floors… and after I discovered this and was trying desperately to find a clean bathroom I inadvertently stepped into an elevator with him. He was a dumpy-looking old guy, with a weird look on his face. I smelled shit immediately and was like “OH GOD NO” to myself, and then he quickly exited at the next floor. As he exited, I saw that his entire backside (of his pants) were smeared with crap. And that elevator smelled for the rest of the day…

    Sexual assault is way worse than what I experienced – my point is: major fucking fuckheads in these parts!

  2. PSU gets very sketchy when it’s dark. I’ve had classes there that get out at 10pm, and you reach that point where homeless people, prowlers, crust punx, etc. outnumber students by a large margin.

    Glad she’s okay and that she reported it. This kind of shit just shouldn’t happen. Anywhere. Period. But especially on a public college campus in downtown Mayberry.

  3. @Oregometry, no it should’nt but sadly it does. And often goes unreported. There are a couple of good shots of the suspects face…he does look like half the bearded twerps in this town, but there is a good head shot at the end…..I sure hope I run into this little creep on MAX or downtown PDX

  4. The full report for the new sexual violence study is here:

    http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/…

    It’s better quality than I expected, given that the news keeps using this strange definition of “rape” the includes attempted rape. The actual report breaks it down, and includes “forced to penetrate” data which has in the past been missing in these studies. That omission effectively silenced many men’s experiences with rape so it’s good to see that they actually covered their bases.

    The most interesting part is probably the racial statistics… um, I don’t have Aspergers, I actually emotionally care about this stuff. And I’ll be on the lookout for this winner, with his winning backwards baseball hat.

Comments are closed.