Alleged Rapist Fatally Shot -- Woman Told Her Neighbor, `He Raped Me Three Times, So I Shot Him'
The woman who shot and killed a man in her Capitol Hill apartment told a neighbor she had been sexually attacked so she fought back.
"He raped me three times, so I shot him three times," the woman told Mary Beth Sprout, a next-door neighbor, after the shooting early Tuesday morning in the apartment in the 700 block of East Republican Street.
The 37-year-old woman, who police said actually shot the man four times, was taken to the Sexual Assault Center at Harborview Medical Center, questioned by detectives and later released.
Because of bruises where she was choked and other evidence, the woman, whose identity was not released, appears to have a credible self-defense case, said Seattle police homicide Sgt. Tom Miller. The final decision will be made by the King County Prosecutor's office.
Sprout, the woman's neighbor, said she was awakened by the wounded man after he left the woman's apartment and began pounding on other first-floor apartment doors, seeking help.
The man's voice was hysterical, yelling, "Help me! Call 911!" Sprout said.
But she didn't know what was happening so she did not open her door, Sprout said. "I was afraid. I didn't know if he had a weapon or not," she said.
A short time later, when she looked out her door, Sprout saw the woman standing in the doorway, and that's when she made the statement about the rapes, Sprout said.
By then, the 28-year-old man had crawled to the end of the
hallway, where police found him. He died a short time later. He was identified last night as Cecil M. McCullough, of Seattle.
Miller said the man was suspected in a 1991 rape on Capitol Hill.
Miller said the man and woman met at the DeLuxe 1 Bar & Grill on Capitol Hill. Both went back to her apartment.
The man decided he wanted to have sex with the woman, but she refused and pushed him away, Miller said. He choked her until she had difficultly breathing, and she feared for her life, she told police.
The woman apparently was raped three times, and then the man let her up to go to the bathroom, Miller said. She went through the bathroom into a bedroom where she loaded a .22-caliber pistol and returned to the living room, ordering the man out of the apartment.
When he swung at her, she fired.