Father of UW student tells how he caught man accused of assault

The father of a University of Washington (UW) student took matters into his own hands when he learned that his daughter had been attacked.

California resident Bill Steinkirchner spoke on KIRO Newsradio's “The John and Jake Show” on Tuesday about how he tracked down the man suspected of the attack.

It started on Sunday morning when he received a call from his wife that his daughter had been attacked.

“Basically, what happened is this: She was across the street and this guy was screaming and yelling, she ignored him and apparently he targeted her,” Steinkirchner said. “It was early in the morning, so no one else was around. She ran across the street and all of a sudden he hit her. He yelled at her, 'I'm going to kill you. I have a gun.'”

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Steinkirchner said that as soon as he heard this, he booked a flight and left.

To find the man, Steinkirchner searched the internet for any information he could find about his whereabouts. When he arrived at the university, he searched the area and to his surprise, he saw the man in an alley.

“I thought, 'It can't be that easy,' and I went up there and sure enough, we almost ran into each other,” Steinkirchner said. “He didn't know who I was, but I recognized him immediately from the pictures and I just said 'Hey' and yelled at him and he kind of looked at me. I said, 'You have to block it out.' But I thought, 'You want to fuck girls?' And then I thought, 'Fuck what?' And that's how he booked it, this guy could have been in the Olympics, I mean, he just ran.”

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Steinkirchner said he chased the man for a while, using his military training to help him, until he got to the point where he was able to call police. That's when Seattle police arrived and were able to arrest the man.

“I think it took me about three hours to stop sweating,” Steinkirchner joked.

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