Northwood News ♦ February 2007

Couple Attacked While Walking on Loxford Terrace

By Anonymous

[The author prefers not to have her identity published.  —Editor]

I walk alone lots of times when my husband or friend couldn’t walk and never had any problems until 2006.

On 1 December 2006, my husband and I were walking our four-mile walk at 5:15 p.m., as we have done for the past 30 years.  As we were coming down Loxford Terrace past the back of Northwood High School, we heard some people walking behind us.  As we got to the 900 block of Loxford [Terrace], one guy hit my husband first in the neck, knocked him partially down, and the second person hit him in the back and he went down.  The first guy then got up and slugged me in the face and knocked me down.  When I got up, my husband chased them, but I told him that he shouldn’t go after them, not knowing what they would do.

They were two black men between the ages of 18 to 20.  The one who hit me was a little taller than 5'4".  I do know that they must live in the area [or at least be familiar with it — Editor] because they didn’t attack us until they got to the area where there was a pathway to the woods.  They knew exactly when to attack.  They didn’t say anything when they did this and they didn’t take anything as we didn’t have anything to take.

We called the police right away from one of the nearby houses on Loxford.  We waited for the police for about half an hour, but we decided to go home and wait there for them.

The police finally came about one-and-a-half hours later and, after taking our story, they said that they don’t come to this neighborhood because it is safe.  I told them that they should be coming to this neighborhood.  They told us things we should do to protect ourselves and then they said they would check down in the area.  They also said that these kids — since they will get away with this — will probably do it again until they get caught.

We would like to get the word out to people in our neighborhood because so many people are walking and jogging at night.   ■