Incident of assault handled at Catz Den in downtown Wayland

Jen Kuyt, owner and proprietor of the Catz Den at 120 S. Main in Wayland, reported an incident of assault Thursday evening.

“Our city’s safe space was violated by a single teenager who was being aggressive to another teen… This teen came into the building and spoke with another teen and left visually upset.  A few minutes later the teen returned with a large cold drink in hand and assaulted the victim by drenching them with the drink, then stormed out of the building screaming profanity and death threats.”

Kuyt said the upset teen stormed back into the building and attacked the teen victim this time from behind, yanking them to the ground and violently throwing punches at their head.

Kuyt and two other adults stepped in to restrain the attacker from hurting anyone else in the building until authorities arrived.

“Thankfully the victim and restraining adults were not seriously injured in this altercation and the attacker did not have any weapons on them,” Kuyt said. “A surveillance video of the attack has been given to the police for investigation.

“I write this with these details as our students who were bystanders at the wrong place at the wrong time will be mentally affected by this event.  I want their families to understand the situation so they can talk to their kids about the details.

“Please know this behavior is not tolerated in my building. The event happened so that we could not think fast enough to prevent it from happening. I assure the public that there is no standing threat from the attacker, and they have received a ‘no trespassing’ notice of our property.

“Our managers will have pictures of the teen and be on the lookout for them and authorities will be contacted should they set foot in our building in the future.”

Kuyt praised student volunteers for helping get the victim to a safe place, clear the building of bystanders, and return the therapy cats to the adoption room. She added that OpenRoad Brewery personnel made sure students had a safe place to sit while contacting parents to pick them up.

“I hope to continue to provide a safe place for people in our community,“ she said. “I will continue to hold visitors to high standards and call them out if I hear profanity or see any physical contact with others.

“This also justifies my reasoning for providing this space for students who are middle school aged and older without a parent present. Some kids and parents do not understand this rule is for the safety of the kids not a punishment to the parents.

“Imagine what impact something like this would have on younger students who are there without parental supervision and all the adults are busy dealing with the situation.

“I am very sorry I have to even write a public statement like this about my facility. I hope I never have to do this again.”

The Catz Den is a unique facility in the downtown district that opened two years ago to provide a sort of therapy shelter for cats and a safe haven for teen-agers.