Opinion ID: 2265268
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Grudzinski Incident

Text: The same night at about 9:00 p.m., Estella Grudzinski, a seventy-five year old woman, noticed a man crouched next to a bicycle near the secured garage of her apartment building at 29th Street near Woodley Road, N.W. She used her key to gain access to the garage, parked her car once inside, and walked to a door leading to the apartments. The man grabbed her from behind, put his arm around her neck, placed a sharp object in her back, told her he had a knife and would use it, and demanded $200.00. When the victim said she had only two or three dollars (which the man took), the assailant asked if she lived in the building. She answered affirmatively, and the man demanded that she unlock the door leading to the apartments. Ms. Grudzinski complied, and the assailant accompanied his victim to her apartment where she opened the door, threw her keys in a chair, and obtained money for the robber from a chest inside a dressing room. After taking the money, the man barricaded Ms. Grudzinski inside a clothes closet. [2] When the victim escaped from the closet, she discovered that her car keys and car were missing. Ms. Grudzinski had avoided looking at her assailant's face during the encounter, but she did note that he was a black male, about 6 feet 2 inches tall, with closely cropped hair (like the figure outside the garage), and wearing a maroon shirt. Having gotten only a glimpse of her assailant, Ms. Grudzinski could not identify him. However, appellant's palm prints were found on the closet door in Ms. Grudzinski's apartment.