Edward Fitzpatrick: Homeless woman recounts the night she became a target - The Providence Journal
She said she’d been staying at a Park & Ride lot in East Greenwich for a couple of months, and no one had bothered her. But on that night, she said, a man wearing a button-down shirt and glasses was standing right outside her window, demanding to know when she was leaving and loudly stating the obvious — that this wasn’t a homeless shelter. ” She said she told the man to leave her alone — or she’d call the police. But that just made him more agitated, she said, and he went back to his car and pulled out a wrench. She scrambled over to the passenger side of her van and used her cellphone to call 911. She said he swung the wrench and smashed the driver’s side window. She told them the man had taken off in a black Mercedes Benz, and soon afterward East Greenwich police stopped a black Mercedes in the area. The driver was wearing a button-down shirt and glasses, he had blood on his pants and his index finger, and he staggered when he stepped out of the car, a police officer reported. The judge sentenced him to 40 hours of community service, to pay restitution and to take an anger management class, a court spokesman said. She said that if Sommer had spoken to her during the day, she would have told him that she is trying to find an apartment in the area. She has had housing on and off in recent years, she said. “It’s more financial than anything,” she said, citing the cost of apartments. Source: www.providencejournal.com
