Woman assaulted after referring to third-party as a "dumb redneck"

A good Samaritan witnessed a domestic violence situation happening at a local gas station and called 911. Olympia Police were able to apprehend the alleged attacker within minutes of her call to dispatch.

While pumping gas at the Cooper Point Road Safeway at 8:35 a.m. on Mon., April 12, a female witness observed two people fighting inside a red Ford at the pump in front of her. The male driver, identified later as Jacob Pearson, 26, was yelling loudly at the female passenger, continuously throwing his hands in the air, making large gestures with his arms. Several times, the witness observed the male driver lay his hands on the horn of the vehicle.

The female passenger told Olympia Police that a person had cut them off at the gas pumps, and she called them a “dumb redneck” in front of Pearson, who took offense to the remark. Pearson told the female passenger that he considered himself a redneck, and began yelling at her for disrespecting the subject at the gas pump.

When the male driver drove out of the Safeway parking lot, the witness decided to follow his car. Through the back of the car glass, the witness watched as the male continued to throw his hands in the air, point and yell at the female passenger. At one point, when the car was stopped at a red light, the male driver opened his car door, as if he were planning to exit it.

In the area of Cooper Point Road and Mall Loop Road, the witness observed the male driver punch his female passenger in the side of her head with a closed fist, according to the police report.

The vehicle turned right onto the road after the 1100 block of Cooper Point Road SW and struck a large rock that was blocking the side entrance. The vehicle sat at that location for several minutes, before the male driver went up the hill toward a retirement community.

When Olympia Police stopped Pearson’s vehicle, they separated Pearson and the female passenger from each other. The female passenger initially denied that she had been assaulted. She then asked Olympia Police “did someone see him hit me?” Upon further questioning, the female passenger commented that she did not want to get Pearson in trouble.

Olympia Police asked the female passenger where Pearson had struck her, which was determined to be the back of the neck. The female passenger then admitted to Olympia Police that she was hit so hard by Pearson that she was seeing “stars.” The female passenger declined to have the back of her neck photographed as well as medical attention.

Pearson was arrested by Olympia Police for Simple Assault – Domestic Violence and booked into the Olympia city jail. At his arraignment yesterday [recording attached to this story]  Pearson was placed on a $5,000 bond by the Olympia Municipal Court, which highlighted his 2019 arrest for a domestic violence charge against a different female victim. However, that case was sent to diversion, but listed as pending, therefore still active. Pearson’s next court hearing is set for April 19 with a no-contact order put in place between him and the alleged victim in the April 12, 2021 case.