Melissa Kingston worked late on Tuesday night, finally leaving her office at Friedman and Feiger at 8 p.m. or so. On her way home, she decided to make a quick detour to the Spec's liquor store at Central and Walnut Hill.
She had just pulled up to a stop sign in the parking lot when, she told police, a man approached her car, which had its top down, and pointed a snub-nosed revolver to her head. Kingston, who is the wife of City Council candidate Philip Kingston and is embroiled in a feud with activist Avi Adelman, didn't get a good look at the gun but told officers it was "possibly a .38 special."
The gunman spoke in broken English and told Kingston, whom he kept referring to as "Sarah," to move into the passenger seat. She refused at first but, after the man grabbed her arm and tried to drag her out of the car, she undid her seat belt and made as if she were going to move over.
Apparently satisfied, the man relaxed somewhat and lowered his gun which, it turns out, was his big mistake. Kingston swung open the passenger door, knocking him to the ground. She then got out of the car and, according to a police report "began kicking the suspect repeatedly in the face and stomach."
She got back in her car once the man began crawling away and headed to her home in the Belmont Avenue Conservation District off Lower Greenville, where she called police. We've left a message for Kingston in case she has anything to add.
Update at 11:09 a.m.: "I was lucky," Kingston told Unfair Park a few moments ago, declining to elaborate further on last night's events to "let the police have the opportunity to investigate this."
"Frankly I'm not sure how much of events like this I want broadcast more than they already have been," she said.
Asked why she waited until she returned home to call police: "I don't even know how to answer this." Anyone who raises that question, she suggested, should try taking a walk in her shoes.
