Journalist Shares Harrowing DC Crime Story: “I Didn’t Feel the City Was Protecting Me”

Washington Examiner reporter Anna Giaritelli shared a deeply personal account on The Ingraham Angle of how a violent assault in 2020 forced her to leave the nation’s capital after seven years. At the time, she was covering crime as a Homeland Security reporter, yet she became a victim herself.

Giaritelli recalled walking to the post office on a Saturday morning near Union Station, in Washington D.C.. Suddenly, a man lunged at her in broad daylight. “I believed I was fighting for my life,” she said. She explained that she was sexually assaulted before a construction worker and other bystanders rushed in to help. The attacker fled, but police later arrested him using DNA evidence from the scene.

Repeat Arrests and Releases

The man was a repeat offender, and he lived homeless near Giaritelli’s apartment. In the months after the attack, authorities arrested him five more times. However, each time, a judge ordered his release.

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“For me, that was something that put his safety over my safety,” Giaritelli said. She argued that the repeated releases stemmed from policies intended to avoid jail overcrowding during COVID. As a result, she no longer felt safe on the street. “I chose to leave Washington… because I didn’t feel the city was protecting me as a taxpayer and as a resident.”

Feeling “Seen” After Trump’s Pledge to Act

Giaritelli said she was deeply moved by President Trump’s recent press conference pledging to restore safety in Washington, D.C., for residents and visitors alike.

“You know, truthfully, it was really emotional. I’m a reporter, but I’m a human being first. And as a victim who hasn’t spoken up for five years, I’ve waited for others to speak up. And it feels like no one sees you. No one sees all of us that have been hurt and had our lives changed by being attacked on the street in D.C. in broad daylight. And President Trump’s message, you know… it made me feel seen for the first time. It made me feel like someone was going to do something about the crime that I’d experienced so that other people, regardless of party, regardless of beliefs, no one should be a victim of crime. And I think that’s what the White House was trying to communicate yesterday.”

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The remarks gave Giaritelli a renewed sense of hope that her experience, and those of countless other victims, would no longer be ignored.