A man lured a teenage girl away from a bus stop and into a wooded area of Seattle’s Northgate neighborhood Monday, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her, according to a police report filed in court Tuesday.
The 36-year-old man appeared Tuesday in the King County Superior Court, where Judge Pro Tem Margaret Mahoney found probable cause to detain him pending charges of first-degree rape, third-degree rape of a child and first-degree kidnapping.
The Seattle Times is not naming the man because he has not yet been charged with a crime.
Around 9 a.m. Monday, Seattle police received reports of a man dragging a girl into a wooded area near Northgate Station and sexually assaulting her.
Officers found the girl, who was taken to Seattle Children’s Hospital with what police described as “minor injuries,” according to a blog post by Seattle police.
The girl told investigators she was waiting at the bus stop on the east side of Fifth Avenue Northeast, just north of Northeast 103rd Street, when a man approached her on his bicycle. The man asked her how old she was, and the girl reported answering him because she didn't want to be rude, according to a probable cause affidavit by Seattle police.
The man then told the girl she was attractive and asked her to join him in the woods nearby, the girl told police. When she refused, the man commanded her to follow him, she said. The girl reported complying because she was afraid of what he would do if she didn't, according to the affidavit.
The man sexually assaulted the girl within the wooded area until she was able to break free, scream and run away, the girl told police. The man fled north on Fifth Avenue, the affidavit states.
Investigators spoke to a 40-year-old man at the scene, who reported growing concerned when he noticed a man strike up a conversation with what appeared to be a child. The man told police he saw the pair walk into the woods together and followed them. As he got closer, the witness told police he heard screaming and saw both the girl and the man emerge from the wooded area, according to the affidavit.
The girl was crying and looked terrified as she told the 40-year-old what happened, he told police. She described her attacker as a man wearing a black beanie and a black T-shirt decorated with a large red graphic, the affidavit states.
Seattle police searched the area shortly before 11 a.m. and stopped a man matching the suspect description near Aurora Avenue North and North 115th Street, after seeing him throw a black shirt with a red graphic onto the ground, according to the affidavit.
Security camera footage captured that morning by a business near the bus stop appeared to show the same man walk by wearing the same shirt and a black beanie, the affidavit states.
Police Chief Shon Barnes called the assault “unacceptable.”
“Our children should be able to travel safely and enjoy their youth without fear,” Barnes said in the police department’s post. “As a community, we need to fully support our victims now and in the future.”
The man was released last week from King County Jail in a separate case, records show.
According to Seattle Municipal Court records, Seattle police arrested him last month for failing to appear for a court hearing on a charge of possession of a controlled substance. He was released April 28 after agreeing to participate in the city's drug prosecution alternative program, records show.
Court records show the man had been charged with three misdemeanors, all nonviolent, in September 2024 in Puyallup Municipal Court. A judge issued a warrant for the man’s arrest after he failed to appear at an arraignment.
After the man pleaded guilty in Snohomish County District Court to possession of a controlled substance, he failed to fulfill several court-ordered requirements and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest in 2025, court records show.
Seattle police expect to refer charges by Friday to county prosecutors in the Northgate assault, King County prosecuting attorney's office spokesperson Casey McNerthney said.
Less than a third of rapes in the United States are carried out by strangers. Such assaults are most often carried out by men and against someone the perpetrator knows, such as a family member, romantic partner, coworker or friend, according to anti-sexual violence organization RAINN.
Statistics show a child in the United States is sexually assaulted every nine minutes, according to RAINN, which operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline.
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