Mother's attack heightens focus on safety

It's the commonplace elements of the story that allow so many people to relate: an evening trip to the store, the loading of grocery bags, strapping the 2-year-old into the car for what should have been a quick drive home.

So last month when a man shoved a Santa Rosa mother into the back seat of her SUV as she put her son in his car seat, threatened to hurt the boy if she resisted and ultimately raped and stabbed her, women across the county shared her fear and vulnerability.

"I think so many people could identify with the situation," said another mother, Madeline Schakel, as she loaded her groceries at the Bennett Valley Safeway where the Feb. 7 attack began.

"It shook me to my very core," said Jennifer Schwinn, also a Bennett Valley mother.

Aristotle Quadra, 30, the man arrested in the attack, is scheduled to appear in court Monday to answer felony charges that include attempted murder, rape and kidnapping, enough to earn him life imprisonment if convicted.

But for area residents, the attack raises disturbing questions about safety, the community they live in and the ability to navigate through everyday chores under a perceived threat of violence.

"You can't live your life being fearful that this is going to happen every single day. You just can't," said Chris Castillo, executive director of United Against Sexual Assault of Sonoma County. "Otherwise, you won't be able to function in society."

Police point to a need to trust your instincts, noting acts of violence can happen everywhere.

"You don't have to be at red alert level all the time, but you want to be aware," Healdsburg police Sgt. Kevin Young said.

Santa Rosa police Sgt. John Snetsinger, whose detectives are handling the case, calls it "having my head on a swivel" and recognizing that anyone could be a threat -- not just the guy standing in the corner wearing a trench coat and hat.

But police and personal safety advocates also note that sexual violence is far less likely to be committed by strangers than by people known to the victim.

The case of the 29-year-old Bennett Valley mother assaulted and stabbed last month was especially frightening because the assailant also threatened her 2-year-old son.

She never saw the man who came up behind her as she secured the boy in the car seat of her SUV, said Snetsinger, who heads the sex crimes investigation unit.

It was about sunset in what would seem the safest of places, in a busy parking lot next to a handicapped parking space.

Armed with an ice pick or similar pointed instrument, the man pushed her into the car, then ordered her to the driver's seat while he stayed in the rear with the child, Snetsinger said.

After driving about two miles to a darkened parking lot off Montgomery Avenue, the man bound and raped her, then stabbed her about 10 times before fleeing into the dark. She sought help at a nearby convalescent center.

Quadra was arrested two days later after police stormed his Mayette Avenue home. They found him wounded, having just stabbed himself with a homemade spear, police said.

Quadra's arrest, and the passage of three weeks, have allowed the initial shock and fear to fade.

A Safeway manager said talk about the incident has diminished to almost nothing. A security guard hired to patrol the parking lot for two weeks no longer works there, a corporate spokeswoman said.

"It's a low crime area, they've caught the perpetrator, and you know it was a very unusual attack in terms of its location," Safeway spokeswoman Sherry Reckler said.

Some customers said the attack, occurring as it did in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood, nonetheless heightened their awareness and focused their attention on personal safety.

"It just reinforces what I think we already know," Schakel said.

Snetsinger said people need to trust their feelings and act on them, even though most people are inclined to give others the benefit of the doubt for fear of offending.

"I can't tell you how many times people said, 'I know I should have . . . I had this funny feeling, but I didn't act on it.' People say that all the time," he said.

Taking cues from the hair that stands up on the back of your neck is one of the first lessons of police work, he said.

United Against Sexual Assault and several martial arts studios reported a surge in calls about self-defense classes following the attack.

In addition to teaching techniques for fighting off an assailant, instructors said there are important lessons about attitude and manner that dissuade attackers from the start.

Most classes try to help you overcome the impulse to panic and freeze if attacked.

Sonoma County sheriff's Sgt. Greg Miller, who oversees sex crimes and domestic violence investigations for the county, said three cases last fall and winter highlight the possibility of fighting off an assailant.

They include a situation in which a woman on her way to work found a man hiding in the back of her car and two in which women awakened to assailants in their homes.

"Basically, fighting back helped," Miller said. "I can't say it would in every case."

But the Bennett Valley case, he said, "is a wake-up call for sure."

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.