Friday, October 10th, 2008

Series of sexual batteries reported near campus

UCPD believes one suspect may be responsible for all incidents, warns students to exercise caution

Another incident of sexual battery was reported to UCPD Saturday, the fourth in a string of batteries in the last three weeks.

At 6:20 p.m., a female student was approached from behind as she retrieved property from her parked vehicle on the 400 block of Landfair Ave. The suspect then grabbed her breasts and fled on foot, according to a bulletin released by UCPD.

The suspect was described as a white male with dark curly hair, between 5’7” and 5’11” tall, between 150 to 180 pounds and is estimated to be approximately 22 years old.

The description of the suspect matches those that were previously given by three different victims for similar incidents that occurred between Dec. 27, 2005 and Jan. 6.

Director of Police Community Services Nancy Greenstein said that because the descriptions of the suspect are similar in all four incidents, UCPD believes that it may be the same suspect.

It is not known if all the victims or the suspect are UCLA students, Greenstein said.

Greenstein said that no suspect has been found and that UCPD is currently working to get a better suspect description.

There are no leads at the present time, she said.

Sergeant McKirnney of UCPD said that the department is working on bringing the victims in so that a composite drawing can be made to more easily identify the suspect.

“Once again, we are encouraging people to program our number into their cell phones,” Greenstein said.

UCPD dispatch can be reached at (310) 825-1492. For more information on UCLA CSO Escort Services, call (310) 794-WALK.