Woman attacked in her home describes how she fought back

Amber Sandhu | Redding

Show Caption Hide Caption Jordi Rouiller describes fighting attacker Jordi Rouiller describes how she fought off a man who attacked her in her home

It was a typical Friday morning at home for Jordi Rouiller. Around 10 a.m., the 24-year-old Redding resident had just sat down at her desk, downstairs in the middle of her home, ready to begin her work day.

She had just opened the sliding door to let her dogs out when from the corner of her eye, she noticed a man peering in.

There’s an empty lot behind her condominium complex on Redwood Boulevard, which is where she often sees gardeners with leaf blowers cleaning up. And while she initially assumed the man was a gardener because of his backpack, she felt he was too close for comfort.

“As soon as he made eye contact with me, he rushed the door,” she said.

Rouiller thought about grabbing her gun nearby, but that meant turning her back from the man. With her mother and sister in the house, she decided to do something her attacker might not have expected.

“I ran in to fight. It didn’t matter what happened to me,” she said. “It was about protecting my family.”

He had just entered the home when Rouiller ran toward him, dodging a punch, hitting him with her right shoulder. She slammed him up against the sliding door, pushing him out, and wedged herself in between, holding the sliding door shut. The man began punching and slapping Rouiller’s face and Rouiller punched back with her right hand. Hearing her yelling, Rouiller’s mother came out of the bedroom with a kitana sword, which caused the man to flee.

“The look in his eyes is what scares me the most,” she said. “There was no good intention.”

Rouiller grabbed a baseball bat, and called the police, who arrived in a matter of minutes.

The Redding Police Department describe her attacker as a white man, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 145 pounds, with tattooed hands, and last seen wearing black clothing. While police combed the area with the help of K-9 units, they were unsuccessful in finding the man.

Rouiller broke her knuckle and right middle finger hitting the man. When the police arrived, she noticed that he may have used two chairs on either side of the fence to get to her patio. But, she can’t help shake the feeling that man’s intentions were more sinister, wanting to cause her more physical harm, she said.

Rouiller lifts weights regularly, lost 91 pounds, and was a volunteer firefighter in Tehama County. Despite being overly cautious and aware of her surroundings, and being a gun-owner, she still feels like she was unprepared for this situation.

It’s prompted her to take self-defense classes and attain a carry concealed weapons permit.

“I’m not going to allow myself to be a victim more than I already am,” she said. “Every woman is doing herself an injustice if she is not prepared and not aware that this stuff happens.”

At Redding’s Amazonas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, hearing stories like Rouiller’s and Sherri Papini’s, who was kidnapped while out for a run, prompted the instructors to start a women’s self-defense class.

Daniell Rosch, who teaches the women’s self-defense class, said a lot of women had expressed concern about running outside after the Papini kidnapping, and wanted to know how they could protect themselves if they ever found themselves in a harmful situation.

The instructors held a seminar at Simpson University, where they spoke about sexual assault situations, and reached out to about 30 women who expressed interest in starting a class at Amazonas. For the class, Rosch teaches attack scenarios like how to free arms, legs and hair if someone has a hold.

“Show you’re a fighter,” Rosch said. “A lot of people are not willing to attack a woman who will make a scene.”

For Rouiller, the attack in her own home has left her shaken. Tuesday night, she called the police again because of a strange thud against her front door.

“Somebody hit my door, and it shook the wall,” she said.

She’s received some hateful and threatening messages online, but most of them remain positive, telling her the community is behind her, and that she’s a “hero.”

But Rouiller just wants her attacker found, in hopes that he doesn’t attack anyone else.

“If they can’t find him by blood evidence or fingerprints, how else are they going to find him?” she said. “I want this man found so I can sleep at night.”