Police Seek Man In 4 Newburyport Sexual Assaults
NEWBURYPORT (CBS) -- Newburyport police are looking for a man suspected in four sexual assaults who is getting increasingly violent with each attack.
There have been four assaults since June, and one involved two women. Police are hoping the public will help them find the man responsible before anyone else is attacked.
"This is a dangerous sexual predator who targets women with increasing audacity and violence, even striking women in well-lit areas and attacking two women at once in one case," Newburyport City Marshal Thomas Howard said. "If anyone has any information about who may be behind these attacks, please come forward."
The latest attack happened on Monday at 9:30 p.m. near the intersection of High Street and Summit Place, where a juvenile girl was sexually assaulted. Prior to that, two 23-year-old women were attacked and groped at 10:50 p.m. by the MBTA entrance off Park Street on Sept. 25. On Sept. 9, a 23-year-old woman was attacked and sexually assaulted while walking on Merrimac Street at 8:30 p.m. And on June 22, a 20-year-old woman was attacked and groped at the same location at 10:30 p.m.
"It's a really safe community and this is very unusual," one woman resident told WBZ-TV.
The suspect has been described each time as a white man in his 20s, under six feet tall, with brown or shaggy brown hair, a normal build and skinny face. At least twice he has worn a dark hooded sweatshirt and light colored cargo shorts, police said. The man usually pops out of the bushes, tears at the victims' clothing and takes them down while saying nothing, police said.
Police are reminding residents to walk in well-lit areas in groups and to be aware of their surroundings. Anyone with information is asked to call police.
WBZ NewsRadio1030's Carl Stevens reports:
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