Two nights after someone threw corrosive acid in a young woman’s face near Esther Short Park, several people on the sidewalks said they were puzzled about the unusual assault, which has gained nationwide media interest.
“It’s definitely been on my mind,” said Dave Melton, a visitor from Riverside, Calif., who was walking with his daughter in the park shortly before dark Wednesday night.
“We just don’t understand why it happened,” he said, adding that he’s wondering if the assailant might target someone else.
In the Starbucks at West Eighth and Columbia streets, where 28-year-old Bethany Storro was planning to go when the assailant struck, an employee said, “People have been coming in and asking about it, just asking if she was OK.”
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Customers weren’t saying they felt unsafe, said the employee, who said she wasn’t allowed to give her name to a reporter.
Three young women who were ordering coffee in the shop also said they’d heard about the attack but didn’t feel unsafe in the area.
Also in the shop were Detective Wally Stefan and another investigator with the Vancouver police Major Crimes Unit, interviewing a Starbucks employee.
Stefan said he has received about 20 phone tips.
A 48-year-old man, who said he’s lived near the park since 2007, said he wished police would release a more detailed description of the attacker.
“If the cops had a composite of her, I would know who it is,” he said, adding that he knows the “street kids” and homeless men and women who frequent the park.
“I know them all, from the crazy side to the stable,” he said. “The kids on the street all know me.”
Chris Fowler, 20, of Vancouver, who was sitting in a car near the Starbucks with friends, said he’d heard of Storro’s severe facial burns.
“It’s messed up that someone would do that to someone,” Fowler said. “It’s almost worse than getting like stabbed or something.”
Joanne Wagner, 63, was walking in the park with two family members and said she heard about the attack on TV.
“I don’t think I would walk by myself in here,” she said. “I can’t do much to help myself.”
“I feel I have to be more careful,” said another woman, who declined to give her name. “Just be more watchful.”
A man who was in the park with his small children said he knows Storro from work at a supermarket.
“She seems like a really good kid to me,” he said. “She’s single and nice and a hard worker. I don’t understand how someone could do something like that to her.”
The Columbian spoke with several other people who said they felt safe around the park, and also with a few who said they hadn’t heard about the attack.
