Inset: Rajena Linson (Detroit Police Department). Background: Part of the 15400 block of Maddelein Street in Detroit, Michigan (Google Maps).
A Michigan woman was allegedly drawn to a bar, taken to a Detroit school parking lot, violently assaulted, run over by a vehicle, and abandoned in bitter winter temperatures, according to authorities.
Rajena Linson, 25, is now facing a charge of aggravated assault with intent to murder, the Detroit Police Department announced Friday. The charge stems from an attack investigators say happened in 2022, years before her arrest.
Police said the case began on Jan. 31, 2022, when a woman drove Linson to a bar in Eastpointe, Michigan, a Macomb County community just north of Detroit.
After meeting up with another person, the group traveled to the parking lot of a middle school on the 15400 block of Maddelein Street in Detroit, according to local NBC affiliate WDIV. Investigators allege that when the victim stepped out of the vehicle after saying she needed to use the bathroom, Linson and the accomplice attacked her and beat her.
“The suspects then backed the vehicle over the victim, paused for several seconds, and drove away, leaving her severely injured in freezing temperatures,” authorities said. Detroit Police Commander Rebecca McKay said the victim was left outside in weather hovering around 9 degrees for roughly six hours before anyone found her.
At some point before she was discovered, the vehicle Linson had been riding in allegedly came back to the parking lot, apparently to see whether the victim was still alive, police said.
Officers were called to the scene around 2:30 a.m. and found the woman in the school parking lot as medics treated her. She reportedly suffered a broken jaw, a broken leg, and a hematoma on her head before being transported to a nearby hospital.
It is unclear whether another suspect has been arrested or is wanted in the case.
