ROSWELL, Ga. -- A woman in Roswell is pleading with the public to pay more attention to what's happening around them after she was sexually assaulted on a park trail in the middle of the day.
His face was familiar, she said. He was someone she passed on occasion while on the trails of the Roswell Area Park. The conversations had always been mundane, short and harmless. But on this one day, they become something else entirely.
"He did not want to just chat," she said. "The conversation turned strange after a few minutes in."
The victim said he began asking personal questions and suggesting they spend more time together.
"He asked me if I was in a relationship, suggested I come with him for food and a drink RIGHT that moment," she said. "And even said I should go to his country with him (but not to tell my boyfriend."
In previous conversations, he allegedly told her he was from Bosnia.
"This is kinda getting in-depth, getting weird. I was starting to get uncomfortable," she said.
At the time, she was on the trails with a 2-year-old she was babysitting and told him that she had to leave and bring the child back to mom. But her attempts to break off the uncomfortable situation were in vain.
"Then he reached in and hugged me. He grabbed my butt and whispered in my ear, 'You’re beautiful' and as he pulled away he grabbed my boob and said, 'I’m in love with you, don’t leave'," she said.
The victim said she finally broke away and ran with her stroller as fast as she could to a nearby playground looking for help. All the while, the toddler was asleep next to her unaware of the moments that had just transpired.
"I was shaking. Why did he do that? I tried not to cry. I sat on a bench and gathered myself," she said. "Should I call police? Tell a mom? Find a park maintenance worker?"
She soon saw the man returning and went to a mother who then helped the panic-stricken woman.
"I said, 'I'm so sorry,' I could barely speak," she said. "But I said, 'that man, he grabbed me.' And she jumped into action and grabbed my phone and tried to take a picture."
When she went to take the picture, the man started running, so the picture is blurry but this young woman wasn't going to let him get away with it.
She called police and when she felt like they didn't put out a warning fast enough, she wrote her own Facebook post telling everyone in Roswell to be on the lookout.
The Roswell police report of the incident provides much less detail than her own account but does show a report time of 11 a.m. - broad daylight.
"A man decided to use my body when he had no right to it," she said. "And it doesn't matter what I could or couldn't have done. It was wrong."
For the victim, it's not a question of her own actions. It's a question of where everything around her went wrong.
"To society, please do better. Why can I not walk a trail at 11 a.m. at a children’s park ... and not be assaulted?" she asked. "Why was I apologizing to the mom who helped me? For being harassed? For telling her that less than a 2-minute walk from where she was standing I was attacked?"
She had one message for those around her though. It's important to be vigilant, but that's not enough.
"Don't tell me you're sorry this occurred, do not make me reply that I'm okay," she said. "DO SOMETHING. Try to be the reason this does not happen to someone else."
She hopes that when people see something suspicious, they should act.
"Stick around or interject. Don't just walk by," she said. "I urge you to be aware of your own actions towards others as well as the actions of others around you."
As for the suspect, he's described as a man in his 60s with a thick Bosnian accent. He has a pale complexion and blue eyes. He is about 6 feet tall, the victim said.
Police have an open case file and ask that if anyone recognizes this man or believes he sounds familiar they call them immediately.
