WASHINGTON -
A woman who was sexually assaulted in Dupont Circle in the middle of the afternoon Wednesday is speaking out about the crime.
Her story has unleashed a flood of similar stories from women who say these types of things are happening far too often and something needs to be done about it.
It happened at 3:30 in the afternoon as DC photographer Liz Gorman walked down New Hampshire Avenue towards Dupont Circle. She was heading to get a smoothie.
" Minding my own business, and a gentleman on a bicycle rides up behind me and sticks his hand up my skirt and fondles me," Gorman says.
She screamed and the guy rode away, laughing, which enraged her .
"I was shocked. Initially, I was chasing after him to try and knock him off his bike so I could get a good look at him," Gorman says.
She couldn't catch him. But rather than be a silent victim, Gorman blogged about the assault on a website called "Collective Action For Safe Spaces."
It's filled with similar stories from other women who've been followed and flashed, cornered on Metro, or like Gorman, assaulted by a bike molester too.
" That's appalling, "Kristine Storie says. " This is one of the safest neighborhoods in the city and we shouldn't have to worry about this type of thing in the middle of the afternoon."
After Gorman posted her blog, she's been flooded with emails of support.
Several women in Dupont Circle said she should be commended for speaking up about a crime that goes unreported too often.
"I thought that what she did was a great thing, " Sarah Harden says. "That's what you want, for your voice to be heard. Too often people don't say anything."
Lupita Aguila agrees.
"I do think it's a topic that women and men need to talk about more, because it's unacceptable," Aguila says.
Because it happened so fast, Gorman couldn't give police much of a suspect description other then that he was wearing a baseball cap and wearing an orange shirt.She says he was riding a mountain bike.
Investigators are looking over surveillance video from businesses at the scene to see if the attack was caught on tape.
LINK: http://www.collectiveactiondc.org/
