A man beat a woman repeatedly with a table leg in a random attack at a Green Line station in St. Paul, according to an attempted murder charge filed Thursday.
Officers responded to the Fairview and University avenues platform about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday and found a 31-year-old woman lying in a pool of blood. She was bleeding heavily from her head and face, and her glasses lay broken nearby.
Police found a large wooden table leg on a nearby platform walkway.
Witnesses reported the assailant had walked west on University Avenue, and police found Jerrod Rentist Johnson nearby at Lynnhurst and Oakley avenues. Johnson, 20, of Minneapolis, matched the suspect’s description and had blood on both his hands, according to the criminal complaint.
“Attacks on our riders are absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Metro Transit Interim Police Chief Joe Dotseth said in a statement Thursday. “Those responsible will be held fully accountable.
“I am grateful for the swift response of our MTPD officers, who apprehended this individual within three minutes of this senseless attack, and to our investigative unit for ensuring he has been appropriately charged. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this disturbing incident.”
Metro Transit police data indicates serious crimes are down 7 percent year-over-year.
Swung table leg like baseball bat
Surveillance video showed the woman exited a bus and headed toward the train platform. Johnson “picked up his pace to follow her,” caught up to the woman and “swung the table leg like a baseball bat hitting her head,” the complaint said.
She turned around “stunned and looked at Johnson,” the complaint continued. He “wielded the table leg over his head” and hit the woman’s shoulder. The woman screamed for help and ran onto the platform’s ramp.
Johnson caught the woman and struck her 21 more times with the table leg on her head, shoulder and arm, the complaint said. She’d been protecting herself with her right leg and arm, but lost consciousness. Johnson allegedly hit the woman for 17 seconds when she was unconscious.
Five to six male bystanders “eventually approached, but they did nothing to physically stop Johnson,” the complaint said. “Johnson leaned against a cement wall, slid down, and dropped the table leg while the bystanders surrounded him.” He then got up and walked away.
At the hospital, the woman told an officer she didn’t know the man who assaulted her. She said it appeared he “was upset that she was screaming as it was ruining the situation for him” and that she “saw joy” in his eyes when he beat her, according to the complaint.
The woman sustained a fractured skull. Staples were used to close injuries to her head in three places and she was diagnosed with a concussion. Her right arm was broken in multiple places from her shoulder to her hand, and will require surgery. One of her eyes was swollen completely shut.
Charged last month after alleged punch to woman
Johnson didn’t talk to police after his arrest.
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In addition to attempted murder, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Johnson with first-degree assault.
Johnson is due to make his first court appearance in the case on Friday. An attorney wasn’t listed for him as of Thursday.
On Sept. 14, Metro Transit police arrested Johnson after a woman reported that a man she didn’t know, identified as Johnson, punched her when she turned around. It happened near the Government Plaza light-rail station in downtown Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office charged Johnson with fifth-degree assault, a misdemeanor, and the case is ongoing.
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