A female student was assaulted early Wednesday morning on the 1600 block of Fredericks Street, approximately a half mile from Cal Poly’s campus.
The 21-year-old woman was walking back from Downtown San Luis Obispo alone at approximately 1:30 a.m. when a 6-foot man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt jumped out of a nearby bush and pulled her to the ground. The man pinned the victim’s arms down to her side, but she broke free and struck him in the face repeatedly before fleeing to her house on the same block.
While police are not releasing whether the victim is a student at Cal Poly or Cuesta College, a campus alert was sent out. University spokesperson Matt Lazier said he did not know if the victim was a Cal Poly student, but the alert was sent out because of the assault’s proximity to campus.
The attack is not considered to be a sexual assault, San Luis Obispo Police Department (SLOPD) Captain Chris Staley said.
“We’re just looking at it as a violent assault because there are no indicators that the assault would be sexual in nature at this time,” Staley said. “Now, that could be because the suspect didn’t have an opportunity … The victim was able to escape relatively quickly.”
Detectives are re-interviewing the victim today, Staley said, and no arrests have been made. Anyone with information related to the assault is encouraged to call SLOPD at (805) 781-7317 or Crime Stoppers at (805) 549-STOP.