A D.C. woman who was assaulted Friday morning isn’t worried as much about finding the assailant as she is about finding the dog that got away from her during the attack.
Beth Kemler was walking her friend’s dog Murray -- a beagle mix -- and her two dogs in the 600 block of I Street Northeast when Murray barked at a jogger. The jogger began yelling, claiming he’d been bitten, Kemler said.
The dog escaped from his collar and ran along Sixth Street to L Street with the jogger chasing him.
“He’s yelling at me, ‘I’m gonna get that dog. What’s your phone number? Tell me your phone number,’” Kemler said.
At L Street, he picked up a metal bicycle fender, which Kemler believes he intended to use to beat the dog, News4’s Pat Collins reported, but Murray escaped on L Street.
At that point, the man grabbed Kemler and touched her inappropriately, she said.
“He started grabbing me in sexual places and dragging me in the street,” Kemler said. “He actually bruised my arm.”
He left her alone when she started yelling for help.
The incident unfolded in view of a crime camera, Kemler said. Police are looking for the jogger.
Kemler set up a Facebook page to help find the dog. https://www.facebook.com/FindMurray
“People keep asking me how I am, and I say, ‘I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,’” she said. “I want to find Murray. That’s all I care about.”
