Police: Neighbor’s arrival halts mallet attack of teen girl in Centerville park

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

A Kettering man who allegedly attacked a 17-year-old girl in the head with a mallet at a Centerville park told police he stopped because another man confronted him, according to court documents.

Bond was set at $750,000 Monday for Johnny A. Hansen, 33, during his arraignment in Kettering Municipal Court. The Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office approved charges of two counts each of felonious assault, with a sexual motivation specification; kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

The teen girl was bleeding from numerous large open gashes on her head and told police she was attacked from behind around 2:15 p.m. by a man she had passed on the trail at Iron Horse Park, 6161 Millshire Drive, according to a statement of facts filed in Kettering Municipal Court, which handles court services for Centerville.

Police were alerted to the attack by several 911 callers who live near the park.

“I just heard a woman screaming ‘No, don’t, don’t, stop.’ And she was screaming at the top of her lungs,” a woman told a 911 dispatcher. “I never heard someone scream like that before.”

Another 911 caller is the man who said he approached the attacker, identified by police as Hansen.

“I heard somebody screaming. … I went down there. There’s a very large white male in a red shirt, dark brown hair, probably mid-20s. He was hitting her on the head with a mallet,” he said.

The suspect left after he arrived, the caller said.

Another man called 911 to report seeing a man in a red shirt carrying a mallet who was running through his backyard that leads to a ravine in the park.

“I watched him go all the way to the edge of the park,” he said. “There’s a really good chance he could’ve dropped something and/or discarded the rubber mallet,” he told a dispatcher.

Centerville Police community relations officer John Davis said officers arrived within 2 minutes of the call and were able to find and arrest Hansen about 15 minutes after the attack was reported.

Police also found a mallet with blood on it and confirmed it was the weapon used in the attack, according to court records.

“Hansen later admitted that while he was striking the female, a male came out on the path to stop him and this was the only reason he stopped hitting the female,” the statement of facts read.

Hansen remains in the Montgomery County Jail and is next due Oct. 5 in court.

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