Police: Naked man attacks neighbor, dangles baby

A 28-year-old Tukwila man busted into a neighbor’s apartment Sunday morning and tried to rape her, then ran naked to his own apartment and dangled his infant daughter from a balcony, according to King County prosecutors.

Ifeanyi Chiegbu, who was charged Monday with attempted first-degree rape and reckless endangerment, was jailed at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent in lieu of $250,000 bail, jail and court records show.

Chiegbu’s wife — who allegedly fought with officers as they stopped the assault on the neighbor, then asked them to shoot her husband after he grabbed the baby — was arrested on suspicion of obstruction, a misdemeanor, according to charging documents in the case against Chiegbu. It does not appear she has been formally charged.

Just before 8 a.m. Sunday, a 53-year-old woman called 911 to report that Chiegbu had spent 45 minutes yelling and kicking, and punching walls at the Pacific Court Apartments on South 146th Street, charging papers read.

Officers, who knew Chiegbu from earlier contacts, went to his apartment, where his wife “was not happy with the police response and asked police to stop coming to their apartment,” the papers read. After confirming that Chiegbu wasn’t inside, the officers began walking through the complex looking for him, according to the charges.

The officers’ attention was drawn to a second-floor balcony, where the woman who had called 911 was panicked and screaming for help; they saw Chiegbu, who was naked, grab the woman and pull her into her apartment, the documents read. The officers noticed the woman’s door had been kicked in and found Chiegbu on top of her, readying to strike her with his hand, when one of the officers fired his Taser, momentarily stopping the assault, the charges read. Chiegbu’s wife then ran into the woman’s apartment and started fighting with officers, the charges read. Chiegbu was then able to get up, still naked, and run onto the balcony and jump off the second-floor deck into the parking lot, according to the charges.

After Chiegbu ran into his apartment, his wife told officers that her 5-week-old daughter was inside and asked them “to shoot her husband,” charging papers read.

As officers surrounded his apartment, Chiegbu went out onto his balcony with the child and a 6-foot-long weightlifting bar, which he pointed at officers as if it was a rifle as he told them, “You’re dead,” the charges read. During the standoff, Chiegbu dangled his daughter by one arm off his balcony, charging papers read.

In officers’ attempts to get Chiegbu to hand over the baby, he went inside the apartment, giving officers a chance to enter the apartment and repeatedly fire Tasers at Chiegbu, before placing him in a neck restraint that made him lose consciousness, the charges read.

The baby did not appear to be injured, according to the charges.

Chiegbu was taken to Harborview Medical Center. Police found his clothing inside his neighbor’s apartment, the charges read.