Woman assaulted on 34th Street

A woman was sexually assaulted and nearly raped as she walked to her car in a public parking lot at 34th and Chestnut streets at about 8:22 p.m. last night, according to University Police Sergeant Keith Christian. Although details about the incident are still sketchy, the woman appears to have fought the man off before he was able to rape her. The woman is believed to be a local shop manager. After meeting the man at the New Deck Tavern at 34th and Sansom streets, the woman walked back to her car with him. He then assaulted her, Christian said. As of last night, no one had been arrested in the incident, but the man is described by police as 6 feet tall and 220 pounds. He is also believed to be a resident of the area. University Police and Victim Support officers responded first to the scene and transported the woman to the Philadelphia Police Sex Crimes Unit. This attack occurred in the same parking lot where a College of General Studies student was carjacked, robbed, raped and shot in the face last October after she left class and headed to her car at about 9:50 p.m. In that case, the alleged assailant, Keith Vivett, 28, of West Philadelphia, forced the woman into the back seat of her car at gunpoint and robbed her of $7. In response to that incident, the owner of the parking lot, Don Tesauro, installed three more light poles and put up a new fence around some of the periphery of the lot at a cost of more than $5,000. Also at that time, University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich established special patrols in the area of 34th and Chestnut streets, as he did near 39th and Pine streets after the shooting of a student last month. The parking lot where last night's incident occurred is near Hill Field and across the street from the Law School.