NYPD: 3 Girls Walking To School Groped By Man In Separate Incidents In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are looking for a suspect who they say is wanted for groping three girls in separate incidents Wednesday in the Bronx.
All three incidents happened between 7 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. in the area of East 172nd Street and Wheeler Avenue as each of the girls were walking to school.
Police said the man first grabbed a 15-year-old girl who was walking alone and asked if she wanted to see him expose himself. The teen ran to school and told administrators.
Forty minutes later, police said he targeted an 11-year-old girl who was walking to school. Police said he grabbed her behind before taking off in a late model, black Chevy Impala. The girl went to school and told administrators.
The third incident happened at 8:15 a.m. as a 13-year-old girl was walking to school. In that case, police said he grabbed her behind while exposing himself. She also ran to school and told teachers what happened.
With multiple schools less than two blocks away, the neighborhood Thursday was heavily patrolled by officers.
"I feel the chills cause there's a lot of little girls that live around here," grandfather Raymond Kudiyah told CBS2's Magdalena Doris.
"The fact that they're 15, 13 and 11 -- that's too much," said mom Cassandra Rodriguez. "I have 11-year-olds and I can't picture something happening to them."
"Nobody wants to think like that, that something's going on in your neighborhood that you frequent," resident Tamika Adams told 1010 WINS' Al Jones. "It's just scary."
"You've got to worry about a pervert," said Chester Ray Gardner, who walks his daughter to school every day. "Anybody that's doing anything like that, it puts us fathers on alert."
Police describe the suspect as a Hispanic man in his 20s who is about 6' tall. He was wearing a black jacket, black hat and black pants and black shoes.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.