Man was waiting in restroom stall when he assaulted fast-food worker, Lacey police say
Lacey police arrested a 25-year-old man Monday on suspicion of assaulting a fast-food worker in a women’s restroom.
The alleged assault occurred at the Carl’s Jr. in the 3800 block of Pacific Avenue Southeast on Feb. 28, court records show.
Officers located and arrested the man at an Olympia bus stop on Martin Way East, just west of Lilly Road Northeast, on Monday. The Lacey Police Department shared a brief summary of the incident as well as a photo of the man being arrested with his hands cuffed behind his back.
The man was booked into the county jail on suspicion of second-degree assault. Court records provide a more detailed account of the incident and arrest from the perspective of law enforcement.
A customer called 911 after 5 p.m. Feb. 28 and told dispatch “someone tried to kill an employee in the women’s room.” When an officer arrived on scene, they found a woman lying on her back on the restroom floor.
The woman was crying and unable to move her head due to an “extreme amount of pain,” according to court records.
The officer called Lacey Fire Department medics to the scene and they transported the woman to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
Before she left, she told the officer that she was attacked by a white man in his mid 20s with no facial hair who was about 5-foot-3-inches to 5-foot-6-inches tall.
The customer who called 911 told an officer he heard someone yelling for help in the restroom. He said nobody responded to the call for help, so he went to check. He found the woman on the floor and notified the manager.
The officer who initially responded to the scene later went to the hospital to speak with the injured woman.
The woman told the officer that a man rushed out of a restroom stall and attacked her. She said the man grabbed her with both hands and strangled her, lifting her off the ground.
She said she felt like he was trying to kill her. To protect herself, she said she began scratching at the man’s face. In response, she said the man punched her in the left side of her ribs with his right hand.
The man then slammed her body into the ground with “a lot of force,” she told the officer. She said she blacked out and woke up to see her manager.
The woman told the officer she did not believe the assault was sexually motivated, according to court records.
She then shared an amended description of the man. This time, she said the man was about 24-25 years old and about 5-foot-8-inches tall with brownish hair and a slim build.
The woman said she had seen the man multiple times walking around and sleeping outside the fast-food restaurant.
No other employees witnessed the assault and they said they didn’t see the man enter the women’s restroom. The employees said they had no idea how the suspect was able to enter the restroom because the door had a keypad lock.
However, the employees and manager confirmed they knew of a man who matched the description given by the injured woman. The employees said the man had a tattoo underneath one of his eyes.
On Monday, a different officer reviewed a police report of the incident and found the description of the man familiar.
The officer recalled contacting a man outside a tire shop on Sleater Kinney Road on Jan. 15. The officer reviewed their body camera footage from that day and confirmed the man seemed to match the description.
The injured woman previously told police she would be able to recognize the man who assaulted her. So, officers set up a photo montage of six people, including a photo of the suspect and five other people with similar appearances.
The woman positively identified the man police suspected from the photo montage, according to court records.
Later that afternoon, officers spotted the man on Martin Way East and took him into custody “without incident.”
A search of his person yielded an empty bag and a used needle.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Man was waiting in restroom stall when he assaulted fast-food worker, Lacey police say."
