HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Houston police are searching for a man they said may be connected to at least two assaults and an attempted assault in the Heights area.
“He had this intense, urgent look on his face,” said the victim of the attempted assault.
The young mother was walking with her baby daughter in a stroller Wednesday when she said she could feel the suspect approaching from behind.
“I heard foot steps behind me,” she said.
The mother said she was walking down 12th Street between Harvard and Cortlandt when she turned around and saw the man lunge toward her.
“He tried to lunge at my waist, backside and said, ‘I just need to.’ I immediately started yelling, ‘Get away from me,’ and he immediately took off running,” she said.
The mother posted her experience and home surveillance video capturing the incident to NextDoor. Within hours, dozens of women commented, sharing similar stories. Those incidents,though, were assaults.
That same day, police said they took a report of a similar man running up to another woman jogging and hitting her on the behind in the same neighborhood.
Police said those two cases are being investigated in conjunction with a third case, an assault on another female jogger from September of 2021.
The victim in that case told she was jogging on a popular paved trail around lunch time when a man came up behind her and hit her on the rear end.
“I sensed somebody like walking very close by me,” said the jogger. “And as he got closer to me, he slapped my behind and then ran away.”
Both women said it happened just before lunch time in public.
“I was in the middle of a very busy street so it’s just really shocking that he was so brazen,” said the young mother.
Police said they are working to identify the man and are asking for the public’s help.
“He’s starting off with something seemingly small. It’s a misdemeanor technically. But, you always hear about these individuals escalating to more aggressive assaults. I want him caught. I want him off the streets. I want him to do time so he can’t do this to anybody else,” said the young mother.
