Help our family move to a safe home!

As most of our friends and family know, Christian was severely assaulted by another resident in our apartments. We moved here in June of 2021 because we outgrew our old apartments and were planning to stay here for a few years to save up. Living here is nothing but a safety issue for my family. When we first moved in, our car was broken into 2 times in the first 2 months. We had multiple neighbors who had the same problem and a few whose apartments were broken into. We are doing something we have never done before and reaching out to friends and family for help.

On Easter Sunday of 2022 I took our dog Loki outside on our usual walk, when we walked by a resident sitting outside his apartment, very strung out on hard drugs. He had a swollen and cut-up nose like he had gotten in a fight the night before. He started making small talk with me that quickly turned sexual. I started getting uncomfortable immediately and told him to have a nice day as I walked back to the apartment. He jumped up and tried to grab me, saying he just wanted a hug. I moved back quickly and told him to leave me alone and not touch me, I started fast walking home. He followed me about halfway back, yelling at me the whole time. When I got inside, I was shaking, terrified, and could barely get the words out of what had happened. My husband Christian was really worried when he heard and went down to talk with him. He went up to him and confronted him for what he did; he told him to leave his family alone and never grab at any women again! The assaulter got aggravated and started walking toward Christian. Christian made it clear he did not want to fight him or make a scene and told him to go home and leave us alone. The assaulter refused and told him he would follow him and find where we lived. This was when he grabbed Christian to attack him, Christian punched him one time for self-defense, let him get back up, and reiterated that he did not want to fight or make a scene, just leave us alone. After feeling he had enough distance between them, he started walking back home. The assaulter ran up behind him and punched him in the back of the head, knocking him unconcious. Christian slipped in and out of consciousness and tried to get away as the assaulter punched and kicked him. Soon another resident saw what was happening and yelled that he would call the cops, which made the assaulter run back into his apartment, out his back door, and across the main road. The resident told Christian to get home safely and he would call the cops; at this point, I see Christian limping, stumbling, with a swollen eye and blood dripping down his face. He got inside and immediately threw up blood. He had blood running down his knees and elbows. I cleaned him up, got him an ice pack, and called the cops. Chrisitan started to forget parts of the attack or why he was even bloody, his memory would just go blank over and over. I had to keep reminding him of what had happened.

When the medics and firefighters arrived, the assaulter waited for them and talked with them. Then they came to examine Christian and were really worried about him and wanted to get him to the hospital right away. Even though Christian could hardly remember what had happened, he refused the ambulance ride so as not to put the family in a financial hole. The Firefighters told us to stay away from the assaulter because they spoke with him, and he was not stable. They said if he ever came to our door to call the cops right away.

After a long night at the hospital and my mom with our 3-year-old Link all night, we learned that Christian had fractured his cheekbone and had a severe concussion. Next week, we have a follow-up appointment to get Christian's eye and cheekbone re-evaluated to see if he will need any kind of surgery on his cheek.

We have recently got more updates on the assaulter and we know he will be in jail until 4/29 at least, he then has court and we will know how long he will be in there. After he gets out, the apartments will evict him. We learned the assaulter has a violent past, owns firearms and abuses hard drugs. He may not be in this apartment anymore when he gets out, but he will know where we live. I live daily in fear of our safety, as well as our three-year-old sons. Going outside anytime is terrifying now because this incident happened in broad daylight, I can be out for a few minutes before having an anxiety attack. I get about 2 hours of sleep a night because I am running my brain to find a way out and be alert if he comes back. We have reached out to all our close friends and family to see if there is a place we can go while we get back on our feet and find a place to go; nobody has a room available, which is entirely understandable. We are at our final option, which is opening up this go fund me to get ourselves in a safe home for our family. These funds would go towards covering the moving costs, deposits, first and last months rent, moving trucks, etc. Our plan was to be here for a while to save up, but we have only been here 10 months and do not have the savings to get out. Family safety is our biggest focus over anything at this point. Any donation is appreciated, but I know times are tough, so donating positive thoughts is just as appreciated if you cannot donate money!

Thank you to all our friends and family who have helped us as much as possible through this scary time. Thank you to my work, Riverside Payments for giving me the time off needed to take care of Christian and Link. I am so thankful for all the support!