Raleigh's most dangerous greenway? Woman "randomly" assaulted near location of cyclist's 2020 murder
Jogger punched in the face, suffered "multiple facial fractures" while running past a "homeless encampment" on Walnut Creek Trail
Raleigh's Capital Area Greenway System, self-described as "a vibrant network of public trails and open spaces perfect for walking, cycling, or using a wheelchair or scooter."
Unless, of course, you get randomly punched in the face while jogging past the debris field of a homeless encampment or stabbed to death while cycling down into a tunnel underpass.
The former is what happened last Sunday to a woman running on a South Raleigh greenway, while the latter is what happened a few hundred yards away four years earlier.
Assault
According to a post made by her husband in the r/Raleigh subreddit, the woman was running past "what appears to be a homeless encampment" on the Walnut Creek Trail on Sunday, November 17, when a man she was passing "randomly punched her in the face," causing "multiple facial fractures to the eye socket, jaw, and sinus bones" requiring surgery.
Images captured in the week after the incident show a large accumulation of trash in the woods by the greenway at the location referenced in the post, including clothes, shoes, and miscellaneous disposable garbage. Based on Google Street View images dated May 2024 which show the location free of trash, it appears to have been left in the last several months.
The poster also provided the following description of the perpetrator, based on what his wife recalled:
She believes he was homeless. Definitely not someone that was exercising.
He was shorter black man with short dark hair. He was wearing a red hoodie, with a dark (black or dark olive) ultility jacket on top.
Unfortunately I don't know of any distinguishing features, she did note that he didn't appear particularly large to her (she's 5'4").
The public report provided by the Raleigh Police Department (RPD) matches the details of the post, confirming that the department responded at 8:27 am to a 27-year-old white female who "received an injury to her face after being struck by a male suspect."
The police also confirmed that the incident is under investigation, the suspect was not known to the victim, and no suspect was in custody.
Murder
At around noon on August 20, 2020, avid cyclist Chauncey "Chip" Depew was ambushed and stabbed just east of where last week's assault occurred, close to where the trail passes through a tunnel under S. Saunders St. near its intersection with I-40.
Depew died of his injuries after being transported to WakeMed hospital; according to the autopsy he was repeatedly stabbed from behind in the left shoulder, the back of the neck, and below the left ear.
RPD was not able to identify the killer in this apparently random attack.
"Parks and Greenways" RPD Unit
Shortly after Depew's murder, it was reported by CBS17 that the Raleigh City Council had turned down an $2.8 million proposal in the RPD's 2021 budget request which included ~$580,000 to establish a new parks and greenways patrol unit, as they determined it would have required a tax increase.
The City Council did approve the funding in the next year's budget for a dedicated unit of six sworn officers and a sergeant which was rolled out nearly two years after the murder in June, 2022.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
The city's approach to greenway security is addressed in it's 2022 Capital Area Greenway Master Plan, which defines it as "the degree to which trail users are free from the fear and incidence of crime."
The plan describes the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) to be "considered throughout the CAG System to create spaces that deter criminal acts and behaviors while supporting inclusivity and the opportunity for environmental discovery":
Natural Surveillance: increasing visibility between trail users and adjacent streets, parks, and other common areas.
Territorial Reinforcement: placing physical elements that distinguish between public and private spaces.
Natural Access Control: using landscape elements to limit access and eliminate blind spots.
Maintenance: cleaning trails and amenities, managing vegetation, and prompt repair of vandalism.
The validity of these principles is perhaps illustrated in how they apply to the location on Walnut Creek Trail where these incidents occurred:
Natural Surveillance: The site of the "homeless encampment" where the assault occurred is surrounded by trees, obscuring it from the view of anyone not on the trail. The location of the murder, while closer to passing traffic on S. Saunders St. and the I-40 onramp, has limited visibility due to trees, retaining walls, and the trail's low elevation relative to the roadways.
Natural Access Control: According to the cyclist who found Depew's body, he was found near a blind curve turning down into the walled-in approach to the tunnel, leading him to believe that Depew's injuries were from a bike crash until informed otherwise by the police. The lack of visibility around this curve apparently provided the ideal spot for the murderer to hide in ambush.
Maintenance: The tunnel, retaining walls, and nearly every concrete or metal surface in the area is covered in graffiti; the litter from the "homeless encampment" had also not been cleared when I came through in the week following the latest incident.
Equity vs Security?
After describing how it is "paramount" that the trail system be "safe and secure," the plan contrasts the basic, race-blind trail security principles listed above with another of the city's priorities, equity, stating that the city "must acknowledge racism, systemic oppression, and bias" in the context of Trail Security:
CPTED: Issues & Limitations
While CPTED guidance should be considered for trail reinvestment and construction, design alone cannot address all issues related to user security along the CAG System. As the City implements policies, programs, and projects, it must acknowledge racism, systemic oppression, and bias (historical and current), and actively work to mitigate it; thus, creating spaces where all feel heard, engaged, included, comfortable, safe, and secure.
Walnut Creek Trail is one of three trails recognized in the Equity section of the plan as providing access to census blocks identified by the city as "more vulnerable" based on "sociodemographic factors" including unemployment, low educational attainment, housing vacancy, and portion of the population below the federal poverty threshold.
Although Raleigh natives are likely aware of the reputation South Raleigh has earned, new residents using the greenway system for recreational purposes may find themselves unwittingly making themselves "more vulnerable" by travelling into a section of the city whose "sociodemographic factors" also correlate with higher crime levels.
Homelessness: History of Concern
Prior to the 2020 murder, the public was already expressing concern with the "homeless camps" and "social deviance" along the Walnut Creek Trail as well as the nearby Rocky Branch Trail, as documented in the city's 2017 Southern Gateway Corridor Study.
The report expressed the public's concern how "the presence of the homeless shelter on S. Wilmington Street has given rise to loitering and vagrancy along the trails."
(The shelter is approximately a mile east down the greenway from the site of these incidents; the body of a man believed to be one of the the shelter's residents was found floating face down along Rocky Branch Trail in October 2020.)
Transparency and Reporting
A roadblock in accurately determining the amount of criminality on Raleigh greenways is that the RPD crime data is reported by the nearest street address, leading to difficulty in sorting out which incidents occurred on a trail or greenway.
One security-related recommendation in the 2022 plan involves more granular reporting regarding incidents on the greenways: "Compile crime, emergency response, and other incident data including location specific information for routine reporting and identification of opportunities to improve trail safety, security and overall management."
However, that recommendation does not seem to have been implemented; when questioned directly about reports of any other incidents reported in this area of the Walnut Creek Trail since the 2020 murder, the RPD merely responded that incidents like the November 17 assault are "rare".
The RPD suggests that users of the city's parks and greenways "take precautions such as always being aware of their surroundings, bringing a friend, following the park Code of Conduct, and calling 911 when they see something suspicious." (Raleigh Parks: Know Before You Go)