PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona congressional candidate says she was knocked unconscious and sexually assaulted this summer while she was repairing campaign signs overnight.
Bernadette Greene-Placentia told investigators that two men raped her, and she kicked her feet up at one point to try to fight back. She said she felt the weight of one of her attackers on her body and had bruises on her arms from being held down, a bump on her head and other injuries, according to police reports.
“I knew that I had been knocked out,” Greene-Placentia told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Greene-Placentia, 52, is a Democrat who is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh for the 8th Congressional District seat representing parts of metro Phoenix that are reliably red. She said she told her husband and campaign staff about the mid-August attack in Sun City days after it happened. The Phoenix New Times first reported on it.
Greene-Placentia told the AP she was disgusted that two men took control of her body and she had no say in it. She said she decided to speak out publicly when she realized she was telling voters she would advocate for them when she was not advocating for herself.
“My takeaway is that I have a lot more empathy and understanding of why so many women don’t come forward,” she said. “And, and I’m hoping that I can encourage them.”
Greene-Placentia said she could not recall many details of the Aug. 14 assault, including the exact location or a description of the men, though she said one wore black boots and had small feet. She told investigators one of the men used an expletive to describe her, and she believes he referenced her political party.
She said she does not know whether the attack was politically motivated, whether she was followed there or whether it was a crime of opportunity by attackers who saw a woman in a parking lot: “I wish I knew.”
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on its investigation.
Hamadeh said in a statement: “I have read the disturbing story and call upon authorities to investigate these serious allegations thoroughly, including finding all possible camera footage of the time and place in order to prosecute the crime to the fullest extent of the law.”
“No American should become a victim of a crime in their own community,” he added.
Greene-Placentia is a former long-haul trucker who later ran a small transportation company, according to her campaign.
In a social media post supporting Democrat Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 run for the presidency, Greene-Placentia called herself a former Republican and a “never Trumper” and said she voted Libertarian in 2016. Greene-Placentia later became more engaged in Arizona Democratic politics.
She said she often put up and repaired campaign signs overnight because it was cooler than the blistering summer days and there was less traffic.
Arizona Democratic Party treasurer Greg Freeman said he got a call from Greene-Placentia, a friend who ran his 2024 campaign for a county assessor, the morning of Aug. 17. She told him she had been sexually assaulted by two men, Freeman said, and he could tell she was not ready to go to the police or share it publicly.
“Obviously she was processing it on the phone,” Freeman said. “She was just in shock. She was just horrified by what happened.”
Greene-Placentia said she wishes she had called police immediately and gone to the hospital. After the attack she took multiple showers and washed the clothes she was wearing, police reports state.
The embarrassment and anger made it hard for her to come forward, she said. She reported the attack to police in late August.
In an AP interview, Greene-Placentia choked up while explaining that she has had to accept the vulnerable position the attack put her in. “I’ve always considered myself a very strong person, and I hate that somebody used their physical strength to take that,” she said.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Greene-Placentia has done.
This photo made with a smartphone shows Bernadette Greene-Placentia, who is running for congress in Arizona's 8th Congressional District speaking during an interview with The Associated Press in Phoenix, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Wufei Yu)
This photo made with a smartphone shows Bernadette Greene-Placentia, who is running for congress in Arizona's 8th Congressional District speaking during an interview with The Associated Press in Phoenix, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Wufei Yu)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, a signboard of Democratic congressional candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia is seen Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, at an intersection in Sun City, Ariz. (AP Photo/Mikella Schuettler)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian-guided bomb exploded next to public buses filled with passengers in eastern Ukraine, authorities said Thursday, killing 30 people as part of a wave of attacks that also worsened power outages in the capital.
The morning attack occurred next to a bus stop in the war-torn city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, prompting public transport to be suspended in the area.
“There is no doubt that Russia is cynically targeting civilians,” Oleksandr Honcharenko, head of the city's military administration, said, adding that the rescue effort had been hampered by subsequent Russian attacks using small drones.
Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4 1/2 years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Russia has escalated its aerial attack in recent weeks, putting pressure on Ukraine as it prepares for winter and hitting the infrastructure keeping its war-battered economy afloat. Recent targets have included energy systems, key industries, railways, post offices, shopping centers, telecom networks, gas stations and grain exports.
Thursday's attack followed a Russian missile strike a day earlier that killed 22, including five children, in the northern Ukrainian town of Pryluky. Rescuers were searching the rubble of a residential building. At least 54 people were wounded. Several survivors slept in heavily damaged apartments because they couldn't find anywhere else to stay.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Pryluky on Thursday with visiting British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who announced new sanctions on Russia.
Zelenskyy warned that Russia will likely escalate daily missile and drone attacks as winter approaches. He appealed for additional defense support from NATO countries.
“It is important that support in words takes concrete form in new packages for Ukraine’s defense,” he wrote in an online post. “Supplies of anti-ballistic capabilities, ammunition for our combat aircraft and investments in interceptors — all of this is directly helping save lives every day.”
In audio clips responding to journalist’s questions Thursday evening, Zelenskyy said a Ukrainian delegation would meet in the U.S. with President Donald Trump’s representatives Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff for two days beginning Friday to discuss strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses, among other issues.
Ukraine's energy company DTEK said national grid operator Ukrenergo had ordered emergency power outages in Kyiv. Regular, rolling outages that occur on a schedule across the country will be halted during these shutdowns.
Officials are urging families to prepare emergency kits, store drinking water and maintain backup power sources, as Moscow keeps up the intensity of its attacks.
Kyiv police said bomb disposal specialists defused two unexploded ballistic missile warheads, each weighing about half a ton, after they landed near residential buildings. Late Wednesday, Russian drones struck Kyiv’s Obolonskyi and Desnianskyi districts, killing four people and injuring 12, including four children, police said.
Russian technology giant Yandex said one of its data centers in the western Ryazan region was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack, taking the site offline.
Also Thursday, Ukraine said its forces struck a large oil refinery complex in the city of Salavat, some 1,200 kilometers (about 750 miles) east of Moscow. Ukraine's General Staff described the complex as one of Russia’s largest oil refining and petrochemical facilities. The claim could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian drones also reached Russia’s Omsk region in western Siberia, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Omsk regional Gov. Vitaly Khotsenko said most of the drones were shot down by air defenses, but one “reached a northern industrial hub.” He didn’t elaborate. Russian independent news outlet Astra reported that the Omsk oil refinery was on fire after the attack. There was no official confirmation of the report.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his government presented proposals to both Russia and Ukraine aimed at protecting civilian shipping in the Black Sea, while warning that commercial trade and grain exports could be disrupted by escalating military offensives.
Separately, Lithuania deployed about 100 additional soldiers to help secure the NATO member's border with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the Baltic country's defense minister, Robertas Kaunas, said. Sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland, Kaliningrad is separated from mainland Russia and remains a major security concern for NATO’s eastern flank.
Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania; Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Locals and rescuers carry out an injured man from a residential building destroyed in a Russian missile strike on Pryluky, Ukraine, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A Ukrainian recruit of the 115th Separate Mechanized Brigade negotiates an obstacle course during a basic military training on an undisclosed location in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Ukrainian servicemen of the Pathfinder Unmanned Systems Battalion of the 115th Separate Mechanized Brigade attend a training with Vampire UAVs, practicing munition drops at an undisclosed location in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters extinguish a burning bus after a Russian attack in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Locals and rescuers carry out an injured woman from a residential building destroyed in a Russian missile strike on Pryluky, Ukraine, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Locals and rescuers clear the rubble of a residential building destroyed in a Russian missile strike on Pryluky, Ukraine, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A rescue worker sits on the ground next to a residential building destroyed in a Russian missile strike on Pryluky, Ukraine, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
