Police arrest man suspected of beating woman who warned others he was fondling himself

A 19-year-old man suspected of beating a woman who warned others that he was fondling himself was arrested Friday night, according to a report by Q13 TV.

A 35-year-old woman had four fractures in her face after an incident that reportedly started in the parking lot of a Federal Way Safeway on Monday.

As she was leaving the store with dinner for her three children, a man in a car asked for directions. Edwards says she could see that the man was fondling himself. Edwards told the man to get away and he continued toward another young woman in the parking lot, she told Q13.

Edwards said she called to the other woman who was with a young girl and she tried to get a picture of the man’s vehicle, according to a message Edwards posted on Facebook.

As Edwards walked home, the man attacked her.

“He put time into following me and getting out of his car and running up on me and attacking me,” Edwards told Q13. “I feel like if he got away with it, he would probably feel like he can do it again.”

She also told the TV station, “He was extremely aggressive and when he came up and he said, ‘I got you.’ When he started laughing, it was one of the most evil laughs I’ve heard.”

Edwards described the suspect to police as a slim Pacific Islander man in his 20s or 30s driving a white sedan.

“Thankfully I was not killed or raped,” Edwards wrote on Facebook before the arrest. “But let’s not give this guy the opportunity to try this again to someone else.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Police arrest man suspected of beating woman who warned others he was fondling himself."