Woman attacked on street in Tacoma in what police are treating as hate crime

TACOMA -- A 45-year-old woman was attacked early Sunday morning in what police are treating as a hate crime, police said Monday.

The woman was attacked at about 2:45 a.m. as she left her home to look for her dog, who had run off. Police said that as she walked in the 900 block of East 51st Street, she passed a man and asked if he’d seen a dog run by. He pointed in a direction and she began walking that way.

Police said she was then knocked down from behind by the man, who called her names and wrote on her, stabbed her multiple times with a pocketknife and then took her dog leash and choked her with it.

The News Tribune of Tacoma reported that the man kept saying to her, "Are you a dyke? God hates fags."

The attacker stabbed her in her breast, jaw, left forearm and left thigh, the paper said. He tore away her clothes and wrote on her body.

The man then ran off.

The woman was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The man was described as being about 25 years old, having a Hispanic accent, being drunk and wearing a Seahawks baseball cap and Seahawks sweatshirt.

"It is being treated as a hate crime due to the derogatory names he wrote on her and what he said to her," Tacoma police Sgt. Loretta Cool said.

Community leaders, Oasis Youth Center, and Rainbow Center announced later they are co-hosting a forum in response to an anti-LGBTQ hate crime. The community forum will be held at the Oasis and Rainbow Center building, 2215 Pacific Avenue, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The whole community is invited to participate.