A woman walking her dog in Sterling Heights scared off a man with her licensed gun when he tried to attack her Sunday evening, police say.

As she walked her dog outside Maple Grove apartments near 15 Mile and Van Dyke that night, the Sterling Heights woman says she got a sinking feeling when she saw a van nearby.

"That's kind of odd - that time of night, why is this van running? And it's a black van with no windows," Sterling Heights Police Chief Dale Dwojakowski said the woman thought.

Police say she noticed a man get out of the van on the other side of the street and started walking parallel to her. Feeling uneasy, the woman, who is in her 40s, and a CPL holder, says she immediately put her hand on her gun that was hidden under her jacket.

Keeping her eye on the man, and continuing to hold her gun, she got to the end of the street and the suspect disappeared. But then not even a minute later, that's when he came toward her.

"He grabbed the back of her jacket and tried to grab her and pull her towards him," Dwojakowski said.


The woman says she saw the man holding something shiny, possibly a knife.

"She put the gun into the suspect's stomach and said, 'I don't want to kill you,'" Dwojakowski said.

Police say the man appeared shocked and quickly ran off. The woman describes him as a black male in his 30s, medium build, clean shaven, with a scar on his upper lip.

Officials are conducting interviews, working to corroborate the woman's story and verify details of the report. They're also increasing patrols in the area and looking to see if the alleged attack was captured on surveillance video.