The following was recently posted to the Lake Claire section of nextdoor.com.
Hi Neighbors,
I wanted to share my experience on the Path this morning as I know that many of us use this trail regularly. While I was running this morning at ~ 10:30 AMon the Freedom Path a man jumped out of the woods and tried to grab me. This incident occurred close to the North and Euclid intersection — I was running toward Moreland on the Path from that intersection and had just crested the hill where the new statue was just installed. He was a white male in his 50s, approximately 5’9″ – 5’10”, thin, ash-blond to gray hair, blue eyes, wearing a gray t-shirt and blue jeans. He appeared well kempt with clean clothes and fair skin that was not weathered. He did not appear to be intoxicated. He came out of the woods and got very very close to me. I turned around and yelled at him (“hey, hey, what are you doing?!”). He reached for me and I then put my hands up in defensive stance, protecting my face. I never saw any weapon and he backed off really quickly once I was yelling loudly. He never did say anything to me. I had nothing with me for him to try to take, so I don’t think this was a robbery attempt. I’m really glad I wasn’t running with headphones in because he would have been able to get much closer to me before I realized he was there.
I’ve reported this officially to the Atlanta Police and they are actively patrolling the Path carefully through this area but have not found the man yet. Also, some of you may be familiar with the older gentleman who sits on a bench near the fountain at the bottom of this hill near the North and Euclid intersection — I want to emphasize that he was not involved in this incident.