Austin Jogger Attacked, July 4th on Hike and Bike Trail near “Secret Beach”

Map of Roy G. Guerror Park and Hiking Trail

Austin Jogger Attacked, July 4th

on Hike and Bike Trail near “Secret Beach”

UPDATE: 7/9/2019

If anyone has information on the suspect who attacked a jogger in Guerrero Park, please contact Capital Area Crime Stoppers at 1-800-893-TIPS (8477).

Suspect description: Black male, late 20’s, dark skinned, 150-160 lbs., medium build, 5’9″-5’10”, unknown eye color, dark and short full head of hair wearing blue t-shirt with line of white near collar, dark cargo shorts, black, round corded headphones covering ears, dark socks, dark tennis shoes

7/4/2019 – This morning my wife and I were going to go walk the dog at a trail we’d not walked in a long time. It’s the Roy G Guerrero Colorado River Metro Park trail that starts where Grove Blvd hits the river.

As we drove into the parking area I was telling my wife about the naked man in the Travis Heights / Big Stacy Park area that had caused a lockdown at the elementary school and was presumedly linked to multiple attempted sexual assaults in the area that same day – last Monday the 24th – the day after we had last walked the dog there in the Big Stacy Park area.

I parked the car and we exited the vehicle and proceeded to the trail. As often occurs, the dog pooped almost immediately. Just as I put the bag in the trash and was turning/ walking back toward the trailhead I heard a woman screaming for help / that she’d been attacked. We rushed along the trail towards her screams and saw a young lady running towards us looking bloody and terrified. Her face was bloody and swollen beyond anything I’ve ever seen in person- the kind of facial swelling / bulging you only see in photos on the faces of boxers and wives beaten within inches of their lives.

She was attacked by a man who began following her while she was jogging. He grabbed her and threw her to the ground and hit her in the face. She was able to push him off of her and ran.

I called 911 and directed the police and EMS to our location. There were at least half a dozen police vehicles and the ambulance deployed in the area in response to the call over the course of the 25-30 minute experience from when we heard her screaming and left later once she was in the ambulance and the cops continued the search. I don’t know if they found the assailant or not – its a big greenbelt area along that stretch of riverfront there from that trail entrance at Roy G Guerrero youth park fields (near the “family friendly” “secret beach”) that extends west to the Krieg Field Softball Complex and the Roy G Guerrero Disc Golf Course and south to the entrance of the Roy Guerrero Trail.

Attacks of this nature along the river’s hike and bike trails have been a recurring problem here since as long as I can remember- at least since the mid 1980s.

I’ve heard of so many assaults and known so many sexually assaulted women that I’m always on guard and pray everyone else is as vigilant.

I hope they catch this latest inhuman… and my heart goes out to the woman whose life intersected with ours because of such a horrific inhuman assault.

Please be careful and cautious out there. I love humanity even as I reel from the all too common horrors our worst visit upon us.

I’ve not yet seen any news report today about this incident but I am watching and waiting and ready…

– Miles Lewis

austinparks.org/roy-g-guerrero-metro-park/