Thread by @MercedesGlobal

It’s still light out - walking down the street. Guy follows me. I slow down. He goes ahead and into a doorframe. I cross the street. He’s waiting in the door frame. Comes out advancing on me and screaming I’m not that pretty and what do I think he’s going to rape me. Just wow.

Thank you to the OPS officer who happened by right after and was amazing.

For women in the Centretown area the guy was wearing a black sweatshirt and baggy black sweat pants. Had the hood up down and a black mask on so I couldn’t see anything but angry eyes. Had a black and white lanyard hanging out of his pants pocket.

He’s extremely aggressive and will follow you. Starts by staring at you, then follows you, mimics you and apparently then tries to wait for you in a door frame. He said a lot more than what I posted here and continued to advance on me physically with sexually violent comments.

Thanks to the @OttawaPolice for following up on this incident this morning with me and taking it seriously. I received a call from an officer who is looking into this and the other reports on twitter.

I'll add one more thing here that I found troubling. There was no police report filed on what happened last night. The call was closed when the guy couldn't be found. If reports aren't filed on incidents like this violence against women won't be addressed or prevented.

When the police called me today they asked me for a statement, which I will be providing. But it strikes me as an interesting question if reports were filed in any of the other similar situations? If they're not it is easy to miss a pattern of someone who might be escalating.

The officer who happened to be nearby also hadn't seen the 911 call - he had to look it up in his system. I saw him driving by & flagged him. He was super helpful but I'm a little surprised the call that a guy was threatening a woman didn't get pushed out in the system higher up.

If police on the ground aren't alerted quickly, they're going to have trouble identifying the guy or finding him. Especially if he lives in the area which he overtly told me he did.