Witness.

Just before 3 pm on 6 May 2010 I was walking down the pedestrian zone of the 10th district toward Reumannplatz Looking for C&A department store on the left side of the street. At first I was looked down the side street to the left to see if C&A was on that street (it is not). As was about to cross the street over the entrance for Keplerplatz U-Bahn station when movement caught my eye across the pedestrian walk way from me. I saw a man of average height in a black shirt and jeans pushing and hitting a small woman toward the corner of the building across from me. She had on a black silk had scarf in the style Turkish women wear. When he began to kick her in the stomach I realized that they were not just fighting but that he was angrily beating her. She had her head down and was being very submissive while trying to get out of the way of his blows. There were a few women at this point who were reaching for her. I could not understand anything they were saying and I could not run across to help because an ambulance was about to pass by and then the light changed. I did yell, “stop!” At that point the man began to run the opposite direction of me, and three men who also looked Turkish began to chase after him. I tried to decide if I should stay to help once the light changed or if there were enough concerned people closer to the scene. I prayed that justice would be done and thanked God for being a God who hears the cries of the oppressed, but I closed my eyes as compassion overwhelmed me and I lost sight of the woman who was attacked.

I crossed the road and saw that the men were successful in catching the perpetrating man. They had him pinned in an alcove of a side door of a cafe or something close to the corner where the incident occurred. There was a small crowd looking on. I confirmed that the man who had hit the woman was taller than me, black hair, dark complexion. I think he was Turkish from what I could hear, but I do not know. His shirt had writing on the front, but I didn’t not see it clearly. One man in particular seemed to want to hold him there and seemed to be questioning the man. I could not understand what they were saying. The perpetrator looked very angry. I asked a man closer than me but he had not seen enough to tell me anything. After a minute apparently they decided to let him go because he squirmed away and went right past me. No one chased him again.

After coming back from C&A, which is a block away, I saw the police talking to the woman who was attacked near where the incident had happened and decided to give my information as a witness.