A 24-year-old Seattle man accused of robbing and raping a woman at gunpoint in the East Precinct on Sunday, Dec. 17, had his first appearance in King County Superior Court on Thursday, Dec. 21.
The suspect, Timothy D. Harris, Jr. has been charged with one count of first degree rape and one count of first degree robbery.
He allegedly met the victim as she was walking from a concert at the Key Arena to a nearby bar on Dec. 5, according to a probable cause affidavit. After speaking for a short time, they exchanged phone numbers and began texting back and forth.
The victim told Seattle Police she invited the suspect to her house near Madison Valley, where they sat at a table and smoked a blunt, the affidavit states. She went to get the suspect a glass of water, and when she came back into the dining room, the suspect had a handgun pointed at her head, according to the report.
The victim told police she swiped the gun away, thinking it was a joke, but the suspect then grabbed her and a struggle ensued. She said the suspect told her to “stop moving or I’ll blow your head off,” while punching her repeatedly, the report states.
The suspect reportedly dragged the exhausted and battered victim to the basement level of her residence, where the victim told police she offered the man money. She was taken upstairs at gunpoint, where she retrieved $200 from her backpack and gave it to the suspect, according to the report.
At this point, the man began making sexual demands of the victim, according to the report, and she complied out of fear of being killed. The Capitol Hill Times will not provide further details about this encounter due to the graphic nature and out of consideration for the victim.
Following the reported rape, the victim told police the man demanded her car keys and cellphone, and then made her go back down to the basement level of her residence and sit on a toilet, closing the door behind him, according to the report. She eventually left the bathroom, after having waited to see if the suspect was going to come back and kill her. Her car was missing.
Officers responded to a 911 call around 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17, where a resident near 28th Avenue East and East Arthur Street reported a vehicle had been left running and blocking his driveway. That vehicle turned out to belong to the victim, and investigators believe the suspect left it there to catch a bus back to his residence at a downtown shelter, according to the police report.
The suspect was identified by his phone number, which the victim provided, and verified that ID with the victim through a Department of Licensing photo, according to the report.
Officers arrested the suspect and interrogated him on Wednesday, Dec. 20. The report states the suspect initially denied knowing what detectives were talking about, saying he’d been with his girlfriend at church for three hours that day. At one point, the suspect told an SPD detective he would defend himself in court and plead insanity, the report states.
According to the report, the suspect later said he did go to the victim’s house, but that the sex was consensual, however, he did fight with the victim after demanding the marijuana they had not smoked. He said the victim broke loose during the struggle and struck her head on the stove, at which point he panicked and took her car keys, according to the report; the story allegedly changed several times.
The suspect was booked for investigation of rape in the first degree and investigation of robbery in the first degree. His second court appearance was set for Dec. 26. His bail is set at $500,000 “based on the violent nature of the offense, concerns that if released the defendant will commit another violent crime and in order to ensure the defendant appears in court,” according to prosecutors.