Police: Man attacked, tried to rape jogger in Tacoma's Wright Park

TACOMA -- A 31-year-old registered sex offender is in jail after allegedly attacking and trying to rape a jogger in a Tacoma park before he was chased away by witnesses.

Daniel Morgan was arrested Tuesday and charged with second-degree attempted rape and second-degree assault with sexual motivation, court documents show.

According to documents, police were called to a possible sexual assault in progress Sunday at Wright Park in Tacoma.

When they arrived, they found a woman who was crying and covered in mud and grass stains.

She told police she was jogging by herself inside the park when she was suddenly grabbed from behind. She fell on her back, and a man grabbed her by the neck and told her to "shush," she said.

The woman fought the man, screaming and biting him.

Another person in the park told police they heard the woman's scream and went to investigate. They saw the victim on the ground and a man on top of her.

The witness told police they yelled at the man, who got up and ran away. The witness noticed the man's pants were pulled down.

The witness chased the man until the man ran into an apartment building on Fawcett Avenue. The witness told police they heard the suspect say "it's Daniel" when he was buzzed in on the intercom, documents allege.

Police reviewed the apartment building's security footage and identified the suspect as Morgan, a registered sex offender. They contacted Morgan, who admitted to police he was in Wright Park at the time of the incident. He told police he was jogging when the victim started screaming at him.

He grabbed the victim, he said, in an attempt to get her to stay quiet. They fell to the ground, and his pants came off in the fall, he said. Morgan said he ran off when other people noticed the fight.

Morgan was arrested after he was interviewed by police.  He has previous convictions of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

He is being held in Pierce County Jail in lieu of bail.