COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA — Police in Iowa have announced the man they believe to be connected to the assault of former Arizona Senator Martha McSally has been taken into custody early Friday morning.
Earlier this week, McSally posted on Instagram that she was attacked and sexually assaulted during a morning run along the Missouri River near the Nebraska-Iowa border.
"The man came up behind me and he engulfed me in a bear hug and he molested and followed me until I fought him off. Then I chased him down. I said a lot of swear words in this moment. I was in a fight, flight or freeze and I chose to fight." McSally said.
McSally was in Omaha to deliver a speech Wednesday night about "courage and heart" to the Entrepreneurs' Organization of Nebraska.
"I ran after him and chased him into the brush where he was hiding as I called 9-1-1 and waited for the police to come," McSally said. "I'm OK, but in this moment, I just wanted to share that I chose to fight."
On Thursday, they announced an arrest warrant had been issued for 25-year-old Dominic Henton.
Council Bluffs police announced Henton was taken into custody early Friday morning by Omaha, Nebraska police.
In 2019, Senator McSally testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee during its investigation of sexual assaults in the military. McSally said a superior officer, who she never identified, raped her.
Having been a victim before, McSally said she wasn't about to let happen again.
"I was in a fight, flight or freeze and I chose to fight," she said.
Civia Tamarkin, the President of the National Council of Jewish Women, who helped establish Ruth Place, a sexual violence and trauma center in Scottsdale, said McSally's military training and circumstances worked to her benefit.
"It's all circumstantial. It's a life-or-death decision at that very moment. She knew how to respond impulsively and instinctively based upon her background," Tamarkin said.
In her post, McSally said the experience tapped into a nerve of other sexual abuse she's been through in the past. But on Wednesday she said, "I felt like I took my power back he tried to take power from me but I turned it on him."
