Although police have received numerous calls and
”
dozens
”
of leads about possible suspects in a string of recent attacks
at Safeway grocery stores, they have not been able to identify or
arrest a suspect.
Morgan Hill
Although police have received numerous calls and “dozens” of leads about possible suspects in a string of recent attacks at Safeway grocery stores, they have not been able to identify or arrest a suspect.
Sgt. Jerry Neumayer said police have contacted some of those described in tips and reports called in by citizens, but the leads have not turned up enough to make an arrest.
“It’s good information and we appreciate the leads we’re getting, and we are taking the time to look into them,” Neumayer said.
Most of the leads have come in the last week since the last attack Thursday, March 26. In that incident, an 18-year-old Gilroy resident was assaulted in her vehicle at the Safeway store at 840 East Dunne Ave. The woman, who was alone, parked her vehicle and before exiting she heard the rear driver’s-side door open and a man got into the back seat, police said.
The woman reached for a pocket knife in the passenger’s glove compartment, and the attacker grabbed her hand and took the knife, which he held to her throat without saying anything, police said.
The victim screamed several times, and the attacker fled on foot.
No attacks have been reported since that attempted assault, the third attack on a random woman in about a week, which happened about 8:40 p.m.
Last Friday, San Rafael Police reported an attack in the parking lot of a Safeway in that city, which is on the northern side of the San Francisco Bay. In that attack, a suspect followed a 48-year-old woman out of the store, grabbed her and thrust his pelvis against her buttocks before running away. The woman was uninjured, and police are still searching for the suspect.
The man Morgan Hill police say is involved in the three local attacks, two of which involved him entering the back seat of a random woman’s car and using weapons to cause minor injuries, is of unknown race, in his 20s or 30s, about 200 pounds, and 5-feet-ten-inches to six-feet tall. He wore dark clothing with a hood over his head in all three incidents.
In the first attack March 19, which happened about 11 p.m. in the same parking lot as the most recent incident, a woman noticed the man following her to her vehicle on foot, from the store’s entrance. She was able to get in the driver’s seat and lock the doors before he reached her, police said.
The second attack happened about 25 minutes later in the Safeway parking lot at 235 Tennant Station, and the suspect entered the back seat after following a different woman to her vehicle. He punched her and shocked her with a stun gun several times before being frightened away by a passerby.
Police have said this type of “violent, aggressive” attack on random women has never happened before in Morgan Hill. Residents, especially females, are cautioned to avoid shopping alone at night until the attacker is caught, park vehicles in well-lit areas close to the building and keep car doors locked.
Rumors of sexual assaults occurring in the parking lots of other shopping centers in Morgan Hill and Gilroy are unfounded, Neumayer added.
Anyone with information about these attacks may call the MHPD at (408) 779-2101.
