Santa Cruz woman fights off would-be rapist

A victim of assault shared her frightening story Thursday, attacked by a man in the middle of the day trying to rape her.

Sarah Shinsky typically has a ten minute walk home from work. Most days it’s uneventful, but on Wednesday something unexpected happened.

Police say Daisuke Muro attacked her near the clock tower in Santa Cruz.

“He tried to pull my pants off and we were fighting, wrestling on the ground for about two to five minutes,” Shinsky said.

Another man nearby who saw it all happened, helped to fight him off.

“First two kicks didn’t even phase him the third kick kind of phased him, the fourth kick he kind of went down,” said James Johnson.

Muro stripped all of his clothes off and began touching himself as Sarah rushed into another good samaritan’s car.

“Once our officers got there he attacked one of the officers and was taken into custody,” said Chief Andy Mills with the Santa Cruz Police Department.

It’s the second run-in police have had with Muro in less than a week.

“He climbed over the back fence at the police department, was in our back lot, one of our officers spotted him and took him into custody,” Mills said.

The chief says Wednesday’s incident brings up the topic of mental health, something he said more resources need to be devoted to.

“This whole mental health issue has got to be a top priority locally here as well as statewide and nationally,” Mills said.

Sarah says she’s still feeling shaken from the whole incident but wants to give others a warning.

“To not be on your phone or have your earbuds in,” she said, “You just need to be aware of your surroundings and I wasn’t aware, I had my phone on me and I was talking to my friend.”

PREVIOUS STORY: A Santa Cruz woman was attacked on her walk home from work.

The incident occurred in the area of Water Street and Knight Street around 7 p.m. Wednesday. 40-year-old Daisuke Muro came from behind and grabbed the victim near the Town Clock.

Santa Cruz Police said during the struggle the woman was taken to the ground and Muro began ripping her clothes and attempted to pull her pants off.

The victim told KION she began screaming but it took about 5 minutes for anyone to help her. After people came over to help pull the woman away, Muro ran.

“Muro stripped naked and began to masturbate in public. As an officer arrived on scene, Muro charged at the officer and attempted to punch him. The officer was able to defend himself and pulled Muro to the ground and with the help of a witness was able to arrest Muro,” said Lt. Warren Barry.

Muro was booked into jail for attempt sexual assault and attacking a police officer.

KION’s Zach Fuentes spoke to the victim. Watch his full story on KION at 10 and 11 p.m.