San Diego Harbor Police Release Their Investigation Results Concerning the Injured Cosplayer
San Diego Harbor Police have released more news concerning the investigation of a cosplayer who wound up in the hospital with severe injuries early Sunday morning during San Diego Comic-Con. A plea was sent out to for attendees to send in any information they could to help piece together the puzzle as to what happened. Below is the full release from the department:
Incident Type: Arrest
Incident Date/Time: July 27, 2014 1:15 a.m.
Location: 333 W Harbor Dr.
Case #: 14-03122
Prepared by: Sergeant Todd Rakos
This press release is being issued because of the high volume of inquiries about this case.
The following information is updated from the press release issued on July 29, 2014.
BACKGROUND:
Shortly after 1 a.m. on Sunday, July 27, 2014, a juvenile female was found with significant injuries in the pool area of a hotel at 333 West Harbor Drive in San Diego. The juvenile female had attended Comic Con earlier in the day and still had her costume on. She was transported to a hospital for evaluation and treatment.
In connection with the case, Harbor Police arrested a 29-year-old man early Sunday morning, July 27 at the hotel. He was booked into San Diego County Jail at 11:20 a.m. on charges of sexual contact with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The Harbor Police Investigations Unit has been investigating the incident, including the cause of the injuries to the victim.
INVESTIGATION RESULTS:
After the incident, Police began a thorough investigation of the facts, including a review of footage from multiple surveillance cameras, as well as the assistance of community members and Comic Con attendees who provided extensive information and sent photographs for review. The investigation concluded with a finding that the juvenile female’s injuries were not the result of a criminal assault, and were likely the result of a fall. Her injuries, and physical evidence at the scene, were consistent with a fall from the distance of approximately six feet.
This finding does not affect the charges against the 29-year-old male, which will be forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office. Because this case involves a minor, no further information will be released about this incident.
We wish the victim a speedy and full recovery.
…as well as the assistance of community members and Comic Con attendees who provided extensive information and sent photographs for review.
For everyone who has read our original article (over 600,000 of you), shared the original article (over 13,000 times), and for those that reached out to provide photos that helped in the investigation from the bottom of our hearts at this site, we thank you immensely.
Hopefully as this year’s “con season” wraps up, and next year’s begins, we as a community, and those who produce conventions, will think about ensuring the safety of attendees both on site, and after convention hours so that others aren’t hurt in any way.
If you’d like to wish the cosplayer well below (we won’t identify her due to age), you are welcome to. If you’d like to talk about “safety” at conventions, and ideas for improvement, you can do so as well in the comments. Any non-constructive comment will be deleted.
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Best wishes, am glad you are okay, here’s to a speedy recovery – Josh Shannon
I’m actually flooded with all kinds of things I want to say. First and foremost I am glad you were found and being cared for. You already know that you belong to a community and regardless of whatever happened (it doesn’t matter & it’s not our business) … we are there for you in spirit and wishing you a speedy recovery.
I’ve been doing cosplay events for more than 20 years and I have some absolutely fabulous memories. I also have some not so fabulous memories. I hope that you are able to get to a point in your healing that you’ll return to cosplay events. It really is a wonderful world full of wonderful people unlike anything else.
Love, hugs and positive healing energy to you.
If there’s one thing I hate, it’s people who try to ruin a cosplayer’s fun by assaulting them. If anything, there should be tighter security for cosplayers AND regular con attendees. I haven’t gone to my local con in a couple of years because of the appalling, abusive behaviour and false accusations of people in certain fan groups, but the fact that some idiots might choose to beat up on someone scares me even more.
To the cosplayer who was assaulted, I have this to say: I hope you’re doing better, and that you won’t let the actions of a few ruin the whole cosplay experience for you.
best wishes and a speedy recovery for you!! i hope all will be well with you and to see you again at next year’s comic-con.
You were one of the most adorable people I saw at Comic Con among the thousands. such personality! you saw me walking by videotaping the whole crowd and you posed and blew me a kiss! So cute! I was sad to hear that you got hurt. I hope that you get better really fast. I hope this has not spoiled comic con for you. I hope that you can retain your innocence and your fun loving nature. I hope that you can continue to feel safe and comfortable being who you are no matter where you go, no matter what you wear, no matter what you do. be strong and safe, sweetgirl. I hope we both get to go to Comic Con again next year and have the most fun ever!
just a heads up to everyone who said she was assaulted: it says in the news post it was a fall that caused the injuries, most likely trying to get away from the guy before he could do anything. Though, in all honesty, the conventions nowadays need to have more security staff with all the crime that happens in them. it isnt like they cant afford it, with most conventions having 100+ visitors each time plus the income from people renting spaces from them to use for the convention. last convention i was at (not anything like this, GenCon Indianapolis) I saw like 5 security staff the entire time i was there, and I went around the whole place a few times a day (as in visited almost every area multiple times in one day). If they had more security staff people, this most likely would not have happened. Though, to Stephanie, about the whole fear of conventions thing, I completely understand that, trust me, there has been too many assaults and other such things happening at them to justify the risk of going to most of them. I mean no offense to anyone with this, just putting my opinion out there.