Woman warns others to stay alert after afternoon attack

WASHINGTON – Cellphone video shows a woman being attacked just steps from the FBI building in DC on a Sunday afternoon.

The video shows the end of the attack as the two suspects run to a waiting car at the intersection.

Piercing screams cut through the silence of Penn Quarter on Sunday afternoon.

Shortly after noon, Kate Rios was on her way to a first date at Teaism on the corner of 8th and D streets on the northwest side. She was just steps away from the teahouse when two girls who looked like teenagers approached her.

“I just can’t believe this happened,” Rios told WUSA9. “My mom wants me to go see a therapist. I play it over and over in my head. I’m so lucky, part of me thought I didn’t know if they were going to pull out a knife and stab me.”

She said they had cornered her.

“They came out of nowhere, got really close to me, cornered me and asked, ‘Can we borrow your phone to call my mom?'” she recalls. “I was immediately scared and the girl looked at me and said, ‘We’re not going to hurt you.'”

But they did. Rios said they tugged on her shoulder bag so hard that she fell to the ground. She said when the girls couldn’t steal the purse, they started kicking her in the head.

“I kept my head covered as best I could. I didn’t think anyone would help me,” she said, her voice shaking with excitement.

But they did. David Del Terzo was one of a dozen people who rushed to help after hearing Kate’s screams.

“Then we saw between the cars beating someone up. Two women having fun with someone. I screamed ‘Hey’ as loud as I could and they looked up and walked away and got into a car that slowly stopped and as they got in, which was quite disturbing, they started laughing.

Rios says several witnesses called 911: one hung up and another remained on hold for several minutes. Emergency responders and police finally arrived at the scene an hour later, she says.

“The police response was a little shocking, but they came here and were very alert when they arrived at the scene,” Del Terzo said. “They (the people/victims) have to have trust, whether it’s in law enforcement or the justice system, especially when something like this happens. If we don’t have that trust, we have nothing.”

Rios, who lives in Virginia, would not return to the district to speak to WUSA9 for this story because of the incidents.

“I moved to Virginia and part of it was because my parents said, ‘We don’t want you to live in D.C.’ I said it’s not that bad, I don’t go out late at night, I never take the subway – I take Uber home when it’s dark,” she said. “I’m as careful as I can be. Never in my life did I think I’d go on a first date and then get kicked in the street near the National Mall. So it’s like there’s a place somewhere that’s really safe.”

Police continue to interview witnesses and search the area for surveillance video. If you have any information, please contact them. Rios said she learned the hard way that you should be alert day and night and not listen to music or be distracted when you’re out alone.

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