“I Was Sexually Assaulted at the Chinatown Metro Station”
Time: Morning Rush Hour (5am-9:30am)
Location: Chinatown Metro Station
At 7am one Sunday morning, a friend and I were heading home dressed in our outfits from the night before (mini dresses and stillettos). The Chinatown metro station was fairly deserted. As we began going down the escalators we only saw one man behind us. As we got to the first landing, the man got very close to my friend and began trying to talk to her and feeling up her dress. She told him to stop and pushed him away from her then quickly got on the second set of escalators which were much longer. Just our luck, he followed us down. We were getting kind of nervous as there was absolutely no one to witness whatever was going to happen to us. Before I could even walk down a few steps to get away from him, he grabbed the edge of my dress and pulled it all the way up, exposing my thong. Thats when I started screaming as loud as I could (I didn’t know what else to do) he quickly ran up the escalators and we could see him looking down at us, smirking.
Looking back, I wish I called the police.
Emphases by CASS.
Submitted 6/28/13 by Anonymous.
Escalators at DC’s Chinatown Metro Station
Editor’s Note: This time last year, we received a similar story of a reader being sexually assaulted on a DC metro escalator, this on at Union Station. In this case, the woman chased down the perpetrator until police came.
Do you have a personal experience with gender-based public sexual harassment or assault? Submit your story to help raise awareness about the pervasiveness and harmful effects of street harassment. All submissions are posted anonymously unless otherwise specified.
If you experience or have experienced sexual harassment on the DC Metro system: Whether the event is happening at the moment or occurred months ago, we strongly encourage you to report to Metro Transit Police (MTP): www.wmata.com/
If you need assistance in coping with public sexual harassment or assault, please contact the DC Rape Crisis Center (DCRCC) 24/7 crisis hotline at 202-333-RAPE (202-333-7279).
