Attack on runner steps up Lake Phalen-area investigation

Star Tribune

Last update: March 12, 2009 - 11:56 PM

An attack on a female runner along a Lake Phalen path in Maplewood has authorities investigating whether there is a connection to similar crimes near the St. Paul portion of the lake in the past several months.

About 6 p.m. Wednesday, the victim was running north on the path west of the lake when two suspects approached her, took her iPod, struck her in the head, pushed her down and kicked her, police said.

"Fortunately, though bruised, she was not more seriously injured," police said in a news release.

Both suspects were wearing full-face masks and the woman got only "a fleeting glimpse" of the suspects, Lt. Dave Kvam said.

So far, police have been unable to connect the assault and robbery to the earlier crimes in the area, which occurred in St. Paul.

Late last month, a 45-year-old man walking his dog in a neighborhood about a mile from the lake was attacked by four males. The victim said one of his assailants hit him in the neck with a piece of rubber .

In an unsolved assault last summer on the southern edge of the lake, a woman was attacked by three young people with baseball bats. Three days after that attack, a couple walking around the lake also were assaulted with baseball bats. Three teenagers were charged in the latter case; one later committed suicide while in prison.

PAUL WALSH AND ANTHONY LONETREE

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