A woman visiting Dallas told the cops she was randomly ambushed by a homeless man. The incident itself was shocking but the alleged motive behind the ambush was even more startling.
The woman, who identified herself as Kristin, told WFAA News she was in Dallas on April 18 when the incident occurred. Considering she’s described to be an elite distance runner, Kristin set her eyes on the Katy Trail which runs through the city alongside the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad.
However, what was planned to be a simple morning jog to keep the muscles warm turned very quickly into a nightmare.
Kristin tells the outlet around 8 a.m. she left the Adolphus Hotel. While waiting at the light on the corner of North Akard Street and Pacific Avenue, she said suddenly everything “went dark.” She opened her eyes moments later with a bloodied chin, bruised nose and scratched elbows.
Kristin immediately went back to the hotel to seek assistance. The report says police responded to the scene and managed to pull video footage to help her put the pieces together. They discovered a man was following her while her back was turned and randomly punched her in the face before fleeing down the street.
The police later identified the culprit as 29-year-old Kevin DeWayne Simmons, a local unhoused individual who is allegedly a “known offender.” Larry Gordon, the chief of public safety for Downtown Dallas Inc., told WFAA he was involved in a few assaults before this one but no one would prosecute him.
We don’t have all the details of his prior run-ins with the law or why he allegedly has a pattern of being violent. However, this time, he gave police a reason behind the alleged assault.
“God told him to hit the lady,” Simmons said, per an affidavit. Well, that’s certainly a hard defense to prove.
He was slapped with a misdemeanor of assault with bodily injury. However, Kristin and her husband want more action to be taken.
“We were shocked to learn that the assailant is currently being charged with only a Class A misdemeanor. The nature of this attack — the force, the physical disparity, the element of surprise, and the resulting loss of consciousness — clearly warrants a felony-level charge under Texas Penal Code § 22.02 for Aggravated Assault. This incident could have killed her. And if the law allows unconsciousness to qualify as serious bodily injury, then justice must reflect the gravity of what occurred,” wrote Kristin’s husband in a letter, via WFAA.
Simmons is currently being held in Dallas County Jail on a $1,500 bond.