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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Attacks unnerve some Burnt Bridge Creek Trail users

Sunday incident was second in less than two weeks

By , Columbian Local News Editor, and
, Columbian Breaking News Reporter
Published:
8 Photos
Roberta Marques Reis walks on the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail in Vancouver on Monday.
Roberta Marques Reis walks on the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail in Vancouver on Monday. The trail has been the scene of two reported attacks, including an alleged attempted rape on Sunday. Photo Gallery

Two attacks in two weeks on a popular Vancouver trail have some walkers, runners and bikers more uneasy than usual.

Other people strolled along the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail on Monday unaware of the fact that a man allegedly tried to snatch a woman walking on the trail just one day prior.

Roberta Marques Reis, who regularly uses the path, was out jogging Monday. She had a can of mace with her, a practice Marques Reis adopted for her personal security. Upon learning about the attacks, she said she doesn’t plan on going to the park by herself anymore.

“It’s a shame those attacks happened since the park provides so much in terms of contact with nature — the birds, creek, the trees and the sounds — and a sense of tranquility,” she said.

Temperatures hung in the mid-70s on Sunday afternoon, when Tremaine S. Rambo, 20, allegedly grabbed a 26-year-old woman and tried to pull her off the trail and take off her clothes, according to the Vancouver Police Department.

The woman told police she was exercising on the trail behind her apartment complex when she saw a man who gave her an uneasy feeling. She stopped in front of a bench to call her boyfriend, who was at the apartment, and asked him to come down to the trail.

Suddenly, the man attacked her by grabbing and throwing her onto the bench. He then tried to pull off her clothing, and she started screaming for her boyfriend, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Superior Court

Rambo allegedly told police he stopped when an “elderly” man and a child walked by and then continued assaulting her once they passed, according to court records. Shortly thereafter, the woman’s boyfriend arrived, saw Rambo standing a few feet away from her and asked him what he was doing, court documents said.

Rambo reportedly balled up his fists and started to walk toward the boyfriend, according to court records. The boyfriend then started punching Rambo in the face, grabbed him around the throat and forced him to the ground. By that time, another man came upon the scene and assisted, court records said. Both men stayed with Rambo until police arrived.

Police arrested Rambo, who agreed to speak with them. He allegedly said he lives in a nearby apartment complex and regularly exercises on the trail. He saw the woman about 45 minutes after he was on the trail and said he was going to have her, court documents said. An officer asked him if he intended to rape her. He said yes, according to court documents.

He allegedly added that he thought she was just going to go along with it and didn’t expect her to fight and scream. He also stated that his first attempt was a test to see if she was going to have sex with him, court records said. When asked why he attempted to fight her boyfriend, Rambo allegedly said he wanted to test himself to see if he could win, according to court records.

Rambo faces a charge of first-degree attempted rape.

Don Curl, 60, was out on his balcony when he heard the woman’s screams.

“She sounded terrified,” he said.

Curl said that Rambo was the reason he was on his porch in the first place. About an hour earlier, Curl said, he had witnessed Rambo running up and down his street screaming. Rambo then moved to the grass, walking in circles and occasionally making the sign of the cross on his body, Curl said.

Curl said he kept an eye on him because “it was odd.”

But moments later, Rambo jumped on the trail and out of his sight.

“When you hear a girl scream, you come help,” he said. He said he was getting ready to head to the scene but stopped once he heard a man yell “What are you doing?!”

At Rambo’s first court appearance on Monday, he appeared in a suicide-prevention smock, which are given to prisoners who may try to harm themselves with their clothing, and he had a bandage across his nose.

He was appointed defense attorney Steven Rucker to represent him.

Judge Scott Collier found there was probable cause to charge Rambo with the offense and held him in lieu of $150,000 bail. Rambo is scheduled to be arraigned May 1.

Another attack

Sunday’s incident isn’t the first time recently that a woman was attacked on the trail.

Just before 7 a.m. April 8, a 31-year-old woman was beginning her jog from the trailhead near the Thunderbird Village Apartments on East 18th Street when she noticed a man in the parking lot, according to Vancouver police.

The woman began jogging east, but felt uneasy, police said. When she turned off the music she was listening to, she heard footsteps behind her, according to police. The man she had seen earlier grabbed her arm and tried to pull her off the trail, police said.

The woman ran away, eventually reaching a spot where she could call 911.

That attacker — described as a very pale man in his mid- to late-20s with short brown hair and freckles on his face — has not been located, identified or arrested yet, Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said.

Though the two attacks happened within about a 2-mile stretch of the trail, they happened at different times and involved different assailants, Kapp said.

The agency may consider increasing patrols in the area, she said, but patrol officers cannot take their vehicles on the trail, which limits their options.

The real issue, Kapp said, is that the 8-mile trail weaves through trees and bushes, and that means users of the trail are at times isolated from the view of others.

“When more people are out exercising, it’s just (more of an) opportunity for people who are criminally minded to find a victim,” Kapp said.

In general, though, she said that the trails are fairly safe.

“Fortunately, stranger attacks is not a common crime, and we’re very fortunate that that’s not the case,” she said. “We would not encourage people not to recreate, just be aware of how can you improve your personal safety.”

Those tactics include being aware of your surroundings and using the trail with a friend or a dog.

Cheryl Bergstrom, 71, walks the trail every day and doesn’t plan to let the recent crimes stop her.

“I’m not going to live in a bubble. I feel safe as long as I have my mace,” she said. “I don’t want to not walk. I need the exercise and I don’t want to be afraid. I’ll be alert, but not afraid.”

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Columbian Breaking News Reporter