FWPD Releases Video Of "Person Of Interest" In Teen Bus Stop Attack
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The Fort Worth Police Department held a late morning news conference where they released video and a still shot of a person of interest in the case involving the vicious assault of a 13-year-old girl near a school bus stop.
Police showed surveillance video taken from a business on the morning of Thursday, April 19. The clip showed a man putting on a ball cap and backpack as he walked across a parking lot. The person is described as a white male, who stands approximately 5'8" to 5'10" and weighs about 200 pounds. The man has dark, medium length hair and a beard and mustache.
On the day of the assault, which is when the video was taken, he was wearing a dark-colored ball cap backward, jeans, a gray shirt and a black, pullover sweatshirt. The man also had a dark-colored backpack that police say has distinct patterning on the right side.
Fort Worth police say the man is a person of interest in the beating of the teenager simply because he has not been identified. "Investigators feel confident that this person was in the general area within the time that this [attack] happened," explained FWPD Sergeant Chris Britt.
A bus driver found the teenager bleeding and hurt around 6:30 a.m. Thursday. The girl was attacked and beaten as she walked to her bus stop near the intersection of Calmont Avenue and Laredo Drive, in the Western Hills neighborhood.
The girl was beaten so badly that now, five days later, she remains in the Intensive Care Unit. Sergeant Britt said, "Since that time [of the attack] this girl has been in critical condition at the hospital and due to that medical condition investigators still have not been able to speak to her."
Investigators have received some leads in the case but say they're hoping for more from information they get from the public. "No matter how small a person thinks it is [lead] we're gonna follow it." Sgt. Britt said. "This is a serious issue. But this is a good example of [how the] community and police department need to come together, as we have in past instances and as we are on this one. The public can be a great tool for us to ideally figure this out very quickly."
Police are asking anyone who recognizes the man in the video or has information about the assault to contact the Fort Worth police major case squad at 817-392-4430. Tips can also be left by calling the Crime Stoppers hotline at 817-469-TIPS (8477).
