THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. — Probable cause documents have revealed more details in an alleged rape of an intoxicated woman by a rideshare driver in Thurston County over the weekend.
A judge at a packed courtroom in Thurston County Monday set Ahmed Hassan Ali's bail at $100,000.
Ali was charged Tuesday, June 18, with second-degree rape and kidnapping.
Officials said Ali will have a GPS tracker on him and will only be allowed to go to court, medical visits, and his Islamic center in Tukwila for religious purposes.
The prosecuting attorney said the alleged victim is worried if he's released.
Documents detailed what happened in the early hours Saturday after a 22-year-old woman reported hearing a man say, "I don't want to kill you," followed by two gunshots and two vehicles driving off.
A Thurston County Sheriff's Office (TCSO) deputy first responded to the scene. The deputy was told that a black sedan was described as leaving the scene. When the deputy saw the vehicle, he initiated a traffic stop.
The deputy said the driver looked out the window, then tried to drive off but eventually stopped after being repeatedly chirped by the deputy's siren. The driver of the black sedan was bleeding heavily from his head and had "numerous lumps" on the front and sides of his head.
The driver told the deputy he had been completing a drop off of a woman when four men forced him to open his car's doors and assaulted him, court documents said. The men stole the driver's phone and fled the area, the driver told the deputy. A cellphone, a black shirt and a single shoe were observed in the driver's backseat, the deputy wrote.
The driver attempted to leave against medical advice but eventually agreed to go to the hospital.
Documents said a different deputy had been called to a location on Sixth Avenue Southeast, where they found two men, one of whom said his girlfriend had lost her phone. The "Find my iPhone" app was showing them that the device was at that location.
The deputy went to the home of the two men with them and contacted the girlfriend and her cousins, including the victim. One of the women told deputies the victim, identified by her initials in court documents, had called her for a ride. When the woman arrived, she found her naked and complaining about pain in her genitals.
Deputies wrote the victim showed signs of extreme intoxication "to the point she was incapable of consent." She was taken from the home to the hospital for a sexual assault kit.
At the hospital, the woman who initially said the victim called for a ride admitted she lied. Instead, the woman told the TCSO they were at a bar when she ordered the victim an Uber ride home. The rest of the group went to another bar, and when the woman who spoke to TCSO arrived home, she realized the victim was not there.
The victim's father checked her location and saw she was near an address on Sixth Avenue Southeast. The woman went with the father and two other people.
She told deputies when they arrived, they saw the black sedan parked near the Nisqually River. When the woman opened the back door, she found the victim naked and the driver jumping from the back to the front of the vehicle, appearing to pull up his pants.
The group "reportedly assaulted" the driver while trying to get him away from the victim, which is why the driver was injured when he was contacted by the deputy. Gunshots were fired during the altercation, but the driver was not hit, TCSO said. The driver was arrested on suspicion of rape and kidnapping, and he invoked his constitutional rights when contacted by a deputy.
A check of Uber app data showed the victim was marked as dropped off at an address that was not her residence. Data from the Life 360 app on the victim's phone showed the vehicle continued driving after the "drop off" point and eventually stopped at the location where she was found in the driver's back seat.
Probable cause documents said the driver marked her as dropped off with "intent to conceal" her location "where he believed no one could find her so he could sexually assault her."
An Uber spokesperson sent KING 5 a statement in response to the investigation.
“The driver’s behavior is appalling and has no place in our society or on the Uber platform," the spokesperson said. "We take reports of this nature very seriously and removed the driver’s access to the platform as soon as we were made aware of the incident. We have a dedicated team standing ready to assist law enforcement with their investigation.
Ali is set to be arranged at the Thurston County courthouse July 2.