A knife-wielding man tried to attack and rape a bikini-clad barista manning a coffee stand in Washington State, surveillance footage shows.
The video shows the man grabbing the barista and holding a knife to her throat before forcing her to climb through a window around 4:45 a.m. Tuesday at Hottie Shots Espresso in Kent.
The victim, Madeline Guinto, said the man later took her down a dark alley intending to rape her.
“He told me that if I didn’t get out of the stand, he would kill me, and when he said that, he pressed (the knife) closer to my throat,” she told KVAL of the attack. “I want people to know I put up a fight.”
Guinto said she did everything in her power to fight back.
“As he’s choking me, I’m shrugging my shoulders to keep the air coming into my lungs and I’m searching for a knife,” she recalled. “I’m doing everything I can to stall him. I’m dragging my feet. I’m giving him dead body weight, so it’s not easy for him to just walk me over into my death.”
Guinto added that once he cornered her, he stepped away, giving her the chance to run back to the coffee stand to call the authorities.
Kent police released the surveillance footage in an attempt to track down the suspect, the Daily Mail reported. The following day, they arrested Michael Reynolds, 33, on suspicion of attempted rape.
Guinto, who is taking time off from her job to recover from the attack, is unsure whether she will go back to work at the coffee stand, noting that it was the second time she had been attacked after being robbed in October.
“I’m trying so hard not to live in fear,” she stated. “I don’t want this to destroy me.”