Shocking surveillance video has emerged of a knife-wielding man climbing through the window of a coffee stand on Tuesday, Feb. 20, in an attempt to kidnap and rape a bikini-clad barista.
Wearing black gloves and a baseball cap, the suspect seizes the moment when the back of the female barista at Hottie Shots Espresso is turned to crawl through the window of the Kent, Washington, establishment.
Surveillance footage of an attack on a barista at Hottie Shots Espresso in Kent, Washington, on Feb. 20, 2018. (Kent Police Department)Several swift steps and the man pounces on the startled barista, later identified as Madeline Guinto, who can be heard in the video screaming “Oh my God” as he lunges at her.
According to a KVAL report, the man put a knife to her throat and demanded that she turn out the lights. When she refused, he forced her at knifepoint to exit through the window.
Guinto told reporters that the man, later identified as 33-year-old Michael Reynolds, who has a long criminal record, then dragged her into a dark alley and tried to rape her.
The woman said she did all in her power to resist.
“I’m doing everything I can to stall him,” she said, according to KVAL. “I’m dragging my feet. I’m giving him dead body weight so it’s not easy for him to just walk me over into my death. And I was just like, ‘Oh my god why isn’t anyone pulling up.’”
Still wielding the knife, Reynolds began to choke her, she recounted.
But suddenly, she said, he became startled by something and stepped back, giving her a chance to get away and run back to the stand and call the police.
The suspect then fled, leaving Guinto shaken and with several scratches, but otherwise uninjured.
Kent police released the surveillance footage to enlist the help of the public to catch Reynolds.
“We want to get this guy picked up,” Kent Police Detective Melanie Robinson told KOMO News, before he was apprehended.
Michael Reynolds. (Kent Police Department)“He’s obviously a coward who preys on young women and females who are working in situations just like this, and he’s a coward because there’s nobody else around to protect them but themselves.”
Police arrested Reynolds on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at the furniture warehouse where he worked.
Guinto expressed relief at Reynold’s arrest, saying that she hopes he “won’t get anyone again.”
“I’m kind of just glad it’s over,” she said, according to the Daily Mail, adding that this was the second time she had been victimized at that particular Hottie Shots Espresso establishment. Guito said she had been robbed there in October.
Reynolds was released from prison in September last year after serving a decade for robbery and burglary, according to KIRO-7.
Charges may be filed against the man pending a review of the case by prosecutors, the Daily Mail reports.
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