A bloodied woman was found staggering down Bruce Randolph Avenue on Wednesday afternoon after she had been raped in an alley, police and witnesses said.
The woman, who had a bloody nose, was taken to a hospital about 1:30 p.m. after neighbors on the corner of Bruce Randolph and Fillmore Street helped her and called police, Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.
The woman told authorities she had been sexually assaulted in an alley a few blocks away, Jackson said.
Police found items that the woman may have dropped during the assault in an alley between Clayton and Elizabeth streets near East 33rd Avenue.
Jackson declined to say what the items were.
Stanley Davis, owner of Lil’ Bull Smoked Meats, said he saw the woman, in her early 40s, stumbling as she walked in front of his store.
“She had blood on her face and hands,” Davis said. “I thought somebody punched her in the face. She was acting disoriented.”
The woman told several women who had come up to help her that more than one person had beaten and raped her, Davis said.
The woman said the suspects also pushed her out of a car, he said.
She was holding her face in her hands and stumbling down the sidewalk, said Sharon Garrett, a neighbor.
“She was kind of hollering,” Garrett said. “She was alone. She didn’t have a purse or anything.”
The woman didn’t have any shoes on and was wearing one white sock, she said.
Garrett said it was scary to think someone could be picked up in her neighborhood in the middle of the day and raped.
“It’s sad,” Davis said. “Typical America. You’ve got the good with the bad.”
The investigation was continuing, Jackson said.
He said he did not know whether there was more than one suspect.
Police do not believe this rape is linked to nine rapes committed in the area since November.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
