Police looking for black man, age 25 to 30, who Newton woman says jumped her outside apartment block

UPDATED: As of Thursday, July 27, police are still looking for a suspect in this case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502

NEWTON — The Surrey RCMP serious crimes section is hunting for a man who put a Newton woman through a terrifying experience early Thursday morning, holding a knife to her throat and marching her up to her apartment door.

Once at her door, the victim, who requested that her name not be published, dropped her groceries and dashed inside her apartment, screaming for help from her husband while the attacker, described as black and between 25 to 30 years old, ran off.

“I just want to get the word out there that this guy is out there,” said the victim’s sister, Joanne Clay. “She’s pretty frightened.”

“I would just like you to warn the public,” she said. “The public needs to be made aware in the Newton area that this happened.”

The victim said the harrowing attack occurred at about 12:45 a.m., in the 13700-block of 72A Avenue.

The victim told the Now-Leader that she had been returning home after buying tea bags and milk at a local shop.

“I’m a pretty cautious person,” she said. “As I’m walking back, I’m always looking to see if there’s anybody around.

“There wasn’t a soul around that night.”

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“As I got to my door, there was nobody around. All of a sudden I heard this, like, a scuffle. I turned, and there was this guy standing behind me and I tried to turn my key in the door before because I knew what was going to happen. I tried to turn my key in the door but he grabbed me before I could do that.

“He grabbed me so hard that it actually broke the keys off the key chain. He got me in the lobby, put a knife up to my neck first. He pushed me through the door; I didn’t have much of a choice, he had a knife up to my neck.

She said he made a “tiny puncture wound” there “and then he scratched my neck a couple of times, just to make it known that he had one.”

The woman said he forced her over to the elevator, pushed her against it, pushed the button and they got in.

“He says, ‘Empty your pockets.’ I told him, ‘Just take my money, take what I’ve got,’ and you know, ‘Leave me alone, I don’t care, just take my money.

“He said ‘I don’t want your f-in money,” she said, her voice wavering. “He said, ‘Do you live alone?’ I don’t even know what possessed me to say it, but I said yes because I knew my husband and daughter were upstairs.”

Once they got to her floor, she said, he pushed her down the hallway.

“I stopped at my door, and just at that instant I bent over and he grabbed me.”

Her arm hit the door handle, she said, the door opened, she fell inside and screamed for her husband and daughter to call the police.

“I felt like he cut my neck. When he realized that there was somebody in the house he took off.”

She said police brought the dogs out.

She said she went to the hospital Friday for an X-ray to her ribs and was told they are “badly bruised but nothing’s broken, thank God.”

The woman said her attacker was dressed all in black, with a little bit of red on his ballcap.

“It had red on the front of it, I don’t know if it was lettering, or if it was just a logo or what it was.”

“He wasn’t one of the street people,” she said. “He didn’t smell, he wasn’t drinking, he didn’t look like he was on drugs.

“He wasn’t hyper, there was nothing. He was just way too calm, and knew what he was doing.”

The woman said shortly after she was attacked about six police cars “went flying” down 138th Street, three “blocked off” her building and two more “went up” 72A Avenue.

“So they were on it right away,” she said. “I hope they get him pretty quick, too. It’s horrible having to look over your shoulder every five minutes, even during the daytime.”

Police confirmed Friday afternoon that by that time no arrest had yet been made. Investigators are canvassing the area for surveillance video and are speaking with residents and businesses in the neighbourhood.

A Surrey RCMP spokesman said the suspect is black, 25 to 30 years old, five feet four inches tall and about 135 pounds, of medium build. He was wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a black hat, and the hat or t-shirt may have had a red emblem on it.

Police ask anyone with information to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

tom.zytaruk@ surreynowleader.com