By Jennifer Sensiba The Truth About Guns
A story out of Arizona tells us about a man who is being held not only for murder, but the stabbings of multiple women in a number of states. It was a years-long spree that only ended when the stabbing tour came to Arizona.
Twenty-six-year-old Raad Almansoori started his crime spree against women in Florida. While out on bail awaiting trial, he fled to New York, where he elevated the stakes to murder. An escort he had taken to a hotel room was found dead with pieces of plastic from a clothes iron driven deep into her body.
Before police there could find him, he fled to Arizona, where he quickly found two more women to attack. The first was a woman he attempted to rob in a Starbucks parking lot, and the second was a McDonalds employee who he followed into the bathroom, stabbing her three times and attempting to rape her before she escaped.
The man was also known to have attacked at least one more woman in Texas, but law enforcement is asking police in all states to help them retrace his steps to see if he attacked anyone else. Given how quickly he repeat offended, it seems likely that there were more.
There are several big things women can take away from this.
First off, we can't assume that only going to good places means we don't need to have a weapon on hand. There are many more creeps like this guy everywhere who haven't been caught yet. They'll look for us in the parking lots of nice businesses, at work, and anywhere else we go. So, we need to always be on the lookout for them and always be ready.
Another thing we can learn from this is that we can't rely on cartoonish stereotypes commonly shared by men to identify guys like this. The sad fact is that guys like this don't need to wear a disguise or anything to go into a bathroom and attack us. They just go in and do it. Looking out for transgender people can limit your awareness of other, more common, threats, with normal women who happen to be big or tall or deep-voiced bearing the brunt of the abuse all too often. No law or restraining order can keep us safe from rapists, but having the means of self-defense available actually can.
It also pays to pay attention. If we blindly walk into a bathroom without looking around, we might miss that there's a guy following us or getting up and heading toward the bathroom when it became clear we were headed that way. I don't have surveillance footage of the McDonald's attack, but it may have been possible to see that one coming. A man you don't know should never be following you around.
Finally, it's good to avoid “the stupids”. Stupid people, stupid places, and doing stupid things can all lead us into danger. For example, it's stupid to work as an “escort”, stupid to go into a hotel room, and stupid to do that with a stranger. None of those mistakes justifies the man murdering her, of course, but it's a danger that's entirely avoidable.
Find the original article in its entirety on The Truth About Guns.
