On Monday afternoon, just before 2p, a bloodied man told police he had been beaten in the fenced-off area below the Pine Street overpass of I-5. This West Precinct write-up on the incident is remarkable for the candor in which the responding officer describes the area many of us walk, ride and drive above every day.

“This area is below street level and any activities or incidents would be completely out of view,” writes Officer William Collins. “This area is a no man’s land populated by the homeless, mental cases, drug addicts and sundry criminals.  The area is littered with garbage, feces, narcotics paraphernalia, grafitti (sic) and slumbering drunks.”

The complete report on the officer’s findings — and a few more colorful insights — below.

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{At the above time, date and location passersby called 911 to report that
V/   had been the victim of an assault and was calling for assistance.
 I was dispatched as the primary officer and arrived with SFD already on
the scene.  SFD Aid 25 was treating V/   head wound.

V  told me that he had been in a no trespassing area at the base of
the I-5 Pine St. overpass.  This area is below street level and any
activities or incidents would be completely out of view.  This area is a no
man's land populated by the homeless, mental cases, drug addicts and sundry
criminals.  The area is littered with garbage, feces, narcotics
 paraphernalia, grafitti and slumbering drunks.

V  , who stays in Kent but does not know the address, stated that he
was under the bridge to simply "smoke a joint."  He stated that he has seen
the described suspect there before and believes that he lives there.  He
states that when S/1 passed by him he said "What's up?"  For no reason S/1
turned around and struck V   over the head with a hard, blunt object,
possibly a pipe or similar object.

V   was dazed by the blow and went down but got up and kept his hands
up as S/1 attempted to strike him again multiple times.  V   had no
defense wounds to either his hands or forearms that I or SFD could see.
V/  immediately began to call for help and S/1 fled the scene.
V   then made his way to street level bleeding badly and leaving a
trail of blood.  There V   was met by SFD, SPD and then transported
 to HMC by AMR.

I could locate no witnesses at the scene and V   stated that there
had been no one else present.  I followed the trail of blood in reverse
down the trail along the overpass.  At the point where the trail began was

unremarkable.  There were no signs of a struggle in the dirt and the
surrounding trash did not appear to be disturbed.  I did not locate the
weapon.  Just a few feet away was a clean syringe, Bic lighter and
makeshift narcotics pipe neatly laid out on the overpass's foundation.

This fact with V   own admission that he was there to smoke
narcotics suggested to me that he was not telling the whole truth.  The
syringe, pipe and lighter suggests that more serious narcotics than
marijuana was to be consumed.  It also suggested that victim and suspect
had been together and that there was possibly a disagreement, contested
 sale of narcotics or robbery invovled.  The above scenarios are all
possible and all common.  Much more common than a possibly deadly assault
with a weapon that comes with no warning for no reason.