http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?o1674_BC_WA–SeattleAttacks&&news&newsflash-oregon

Man raped in downtown Seattle

The Associated Press
9/12/00 7:22 AM SEATTLE (AP) — A 23-year-old man was raped in the
downtown area, and police are looking into the possibility of a link to
at least eight robberies and assaults, including one a few hours
earlier.

“We are comparing notes with the robbery detectives to see if there are
any similarities and to see if there could be a gang connection,” police
Lt. Neil Low said Monday.

At least nine people have been assaulted in the past three weeks in a
30-block downtown area.

Robbery detectives say they are close to making an arrest in one case,
the thrill-beating and robbery of a 44-year-old man by a pack of youths
who were videotaped by a witness on Aug.
25.

A police officer has identified two juveniles and someone who saw the
videotape on television helped identify a third.
Investigators have said that case might not be linked with six assaults
the night of Aug. 31.

Police said the attack late Saturday night was the first violent rape of
a man on the street in Seattle since an assault on a tourist from
Alabama near Seattle University a decade ago.

A man from Portland, Ore., left the Elephant & Castle Pub at Fifth
Avenue and Union Street and was walking to Pioneer Square when he was
accosted by one man, overpowered by two others, dragged into some bushes
near the public library and raped by one of the three.

He reported the attack, described by Low as probably “an act of
intimidation,” after returning to his downtown hotel and was examined at
Harborview Medical Center.

About four hours earlier, three men beat and robbed a
38-year-old transient in an alley near Seventh Avenue and Stewart
Street.

All but one of the victims in the attacks have been white men and most
of the attackers have been described as black or Hispanic, but Sgt.
Larry Brotherton and other police investigators have discounted race as
a factor.

“I think it has to do with an influx of (bad) behaviors in the downtown
corridor over the past three to six months,”
Brotherton said.

“We’re a growing city, and we’re not a small city anymore, and we have
to be aware of that,” he said. “We build all those condos and
apartments downtown, but we still have lots of people who come here to
prey on people.”

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