Capitol Hill man recalls violent assault inside his apartment complex from VRBO guest

On November 28, Eric Riner was assaulted at his apartment complex in Capitol Hill. It happened just before midnight.

Riner said a VRBO guest was staying in the apartment below his when he heard someone screaming in the hallway.

He said he went out into the hallway and the man bull-rushed him, nearly pushing him out of a window.

“We fought like dogs right here for a while,” he recalled. “I was hitting him with my cell phone, punching him, doing everything I could to get him off me.”

Riner told KIRO 7 that his girlfriend called 911 and screamed at the man to get off of him. That’s when Riner said the man tried to lunge at his girlfriend.

“And then I hit him even more, I stayed on him so he wasn’t able to touch her,” he said.

Riner got four deep cuts from the broken window glass and was shoved nearly through the window.

“This one on my shoulder... I’m bleeding like the Exxon Valdez,” he said. “Whenever I got upstairs, I collapsed on the floor and I’m just watching it pool.”

Riner said soon after Seattle Police arrived and they took him and his girlfriend out of the building.

“The moment we got here, I heard the police say, ‘Hands, hands, hands,’ and I’m like oh thank Christ,” he said.

According to the police report, the suspect refused to open the door and speak to officers.

The suspect still has not been arrested.

Riner and his girlfriend were taken to the hospital.

Neighbors told Riner the man came out after officers left and started trashing the hallway.

“He was still screaming and they were terrified and they called 911 and no one came,” he said. “If someone is inside your home and tries to kill you that needs to be looked at as being an actual crime and it’s not.”

Riner shared an email with KIRO 7 from the Seattle City Attorney’s Office.

The email reads in part, “As the police report stands currently, there is no mention of your stitches or other bodily injury and no mention of the property destruction afterward. The prosecutor is going to hold off on filing right now and has requested that SPD do additional investigation.”

Riner told KIRO 7 that he’s been trying to get in touch with police but has not gotten a response.

“I called every number I could get and sometimes when I got so frustrated I called 911 and they’d tell me they couldn’t help me,” he said. “I don’t know what would have happened to my cats and my girl if he had actually succeeded in killing me.”

Riner said that he has filed a report with the Office of Police Accountability.

KIRO 7 also reached out to the city attorney’s office and are waiting to hear back.

KIRO 7 also reached out to SPD who said they would provide more information soon.

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