Tucker warns against inviting strangers into one’s home
Jerry Tucker has some words of warning to anyone who might consider inviting a stranger into their home: “Don’t do it.”
Tucker is recovering this week after having his throat slashed in his own apartment by an assailant he met on the street.
Tucker, who lives in the 2800 block of Arroyo Street in Oak Lawn, said he met the man at a bus stop near the intersection of Arroyo Street and Maple Avenue while waiting to catch the bus to his job to pick up his paycheck. It was about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 5, when the man approached him and first solicited him for sex and then asked to borrow some money.
“We had talked for a little bit, and he asked me if I ever messed around. I told him yes, sometimes, but that I really wasn’t in the mood right then,” Tucker said in a telephone interview this week.
When the man asked to “borrow a dollar for a beer,” Tucker said he agreed and took the man back to his apartment.
Once at the apartment, Tucker said, the two men sat on the couch and talked “for about an hour or so.” He said the man told him his name, “but I don’t remember it. I just remember that he told me he goes by Jay.”
“Jay” also told Tucker he was separated from his wife, who lives in Plano, and that he sometimes stayed with his daughter, who lives near R.L. Thornton Freeway and Buckner Avenue.
He also told Tucker that he had worked for a trucking company on Industrial Avenue near Mockingbird Avenue, but had injured his back in an accident. He even showed Tucker the scar on his back from surgery to repair the injury.
Then about 7 p.m., Tucker said, “Jay” once again asked if he was interested in “messing around.” When Tucker again refused, he said, “Jay” asked if they could watch a movie. Tucker said he agreed, but told the man he had to leave by 8 p.m. to run his errand.
At that point, Tucker said, “Jay” got up and went to the table where he had left the bag he was carrying, and began rummaging through it.
“I thought he was looking for something to eat, a snack or something, and I told him I would get him something if he was hungry,” Tucker said. “He said no, he was fine, and walked back over to the couch. I had taken my shirt off earlier, and I stood up to put it back on. When he came toward me, I thought he was going to try to kiss me, and I told him no and started to move away.”
That was when, Tucker said, “Jay” grabbed Tucker with his left arm, pulling him against his body.
“I felt his right hand go across my throat, but I didn’t realize I had been cut until I saw the blood,” Tucker said. He said he wasn’t sure what weapon the man had used, but that police told him later it appeared he had been cut with a razor blade they found at the scene.
Tucker said he immediately began struggling with his attacker, managing to break away and get to his patio door and get outside. His screams, he said, alerted neighbors who called police.
The assailant escaped before officers arrived, taking with him only Tucker’s Timex watch, even though Tucker’s wallet containing about $300 in cash was sitting near by.
Tucker said he was hospitalized over night, admitted under a fake name to protect him in case his attacker came looking for him.
“The doctors told me I was very lucky to be alive,” Tucker said.
Tucker described “Jay” as a white male about 48 years old, with muscular arms, shoulders and chest, but with a slight paunch around his abdomen. He had very short, dark hair and no obvious tattoos. He also has a scar, supposedly from a recent back surgery, on his lower back, just above his waistline.
Tucker also said “Jay” had appeared clean cut and sober, and that he had given “no warning whatsoever” that he intended to harm Tucker.
“He wasn’t drunk, and he obviously wasn’t a drug addict. He was nice and very calm, very mellow,” Tucker said. “That’s the scariest part about this, how totally mellow this guy was, even when he was cutting my throat.”
A spokeswoman in the Dallas Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit said Wednesday, Jan. 8, that the incident had not yet been assigned to a detective for investigation.
E-mail nash@dallasvoice.com
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 11, 2008