RAINIER VALLEY – Seattle police are searching for a masked man who groped a woman in Southeast Seattle early Wednesday.
Det. Renee Witt said the incident is similar to two other attacks that took place in the last eight months.
“Our detectives will be looking at all three incidents to see if this could possibly be the same suspect,” said Witt. “We are definitely not ruling that out.”
In the most recent attack, the woman was walking near 43rd Avenue South and South Webster Street when she heard someone following her and turned around, according to Witt.
“The suspect quickly caught up with the victim and attacked her,” said Witt. “The victim screamed, at which point the suspect ran off.”
The woman was not harmed.
“This is considered a sexual assault because when he grabbed her, he also groped her,” said Witt.
Witt said detectives are working on assembling a description of the attacker, but said at this point the information is too vague to be useful.
The first of the two other similar attacks took place on Dec. 8, 2011, and the second attack took place on June 7 at 36th Avenue South and South Oregon Street.
The Seattle Police Sexual Assault Unit is now investigating. Anyone with information on any of the three cases is urged to call 911 immediately.
