Palo Alto police seek suspect in sexual assaults

PALO ALTO, Calif. (KGO) -- Palo Alto police are looking into whether two brazen sexual attacks were committed by the same person. The first assault happened on August 20 in the middle of the day on Fulton Street not far from University Avenue. The other attack happened just yesterday, also around noon, outside the Stanford Shopping Center.

A man came out from between two parked cars and grabbed a woman's breasts as she was walking between Nordstrom's and Wilkes Bashford at Stanford Shopping Center.

Last week in a picture perfect neighborhood on the 600 block of Fulton Street, a woman was next to her car looking for her keys when a man walked up, grabbed her buttocks and ran away. Police say both happened about noon and there other similarities.

"The kind of random nature of the attack, the quick grab of the victim's body and the immediate exodus all leads us to believe it likely could be the same person," said Palo Alto Police Lt. Zach Perron.

Police say the description pretty much matches as well. The suspect is described as East Indian, about 30-years-old, 5'9" medium build. In the most recent assault he was wearing a yellow hood, in last week's assault he was wearing a varsity-style sports jacket.

Police have a very preliminary profile of the suspect.

"He is somebody who is thrill seeking and hopefully not somebody who is doing this in order to escalate into a more serious assault. That would obviously be the worst case scenario and we hope that is not what this is," said Perron.

Perron said if the suspect is caught, he would face misdemeanor sexual battery. Palo Alto police are increasing patrols at the shopping center and the neighborhood where the attacks occurred. The patrols will also have undercover police.

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sex crimes, palo alto, crime, peninsula news, terry mcsweeney

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