ASU Police say a copycat could be contributing to the growing number of groping incidents on the Tempe campus.
As of Thursday, 14 incidents had been reported to police. Assistant ASU Police Chief Jay Spradling said it’s within the realm of possibility that the same person committed all of the attacks, but there have been inconsistencies in witness descriptions.
“There are similarities [of witness descriptions], but there’s a bunch of differences,” Spradling said. “There’s no way of saying it’s all the same person.”
There aren’t many video cameras in the areas where the assaults have occurred, he said, and the suspect has either not appeared on video surveillance or the footage was not usable to identify the suspect.
Two assaults were reported on Sunday at around 7:20 and 8:15 p.m.
In the first incident, a 22-year-old female student told police she was walking to her vehicle in Lot 11, between the Lyceum Theater and School of Human Evolution and Social Change, when a man on a squeaky bicycle rode from behind her and grabbed her buttock, police reported.
About an hour later, an 18-year-old female student was on Palm Walk walking home from the Student Recreation Complex on the Tempe campus when a man rode his bicycle beside the woman and grabbed her breast, according to a report.
The woman told police she was in front of the Engineering Center when a man on a bicycle tapped her on the shoulder, and when she turned around to see who the man was, he placed his hand under her shirt and grabbed her breast, police reported.
The victim of the earlier incident told police the man who assaulted her was possibly white, with dark hair, early-to-middle 20s in age with a thin build, and was wearing a white shirt, possibly jean shorts and a green backpack with patching, according to a report.
The second victim told police the man was Middle Eastern with light skin and dark hair, in his middle 20s with a thin build, and was wearing a light-colored shirt with dark brown plaid shorts, police reported.
The other most recent assaults took place against a 20-year-old female student on Aug. 31 and another 20-year-old female student on Aug. 26, according to police reports.
On Tuesday, an 18-year-old female student reported that she was assaulted on Aug. 24. She came forward to report the incident after hearing several other incidents on campus, according to a police report.
All incidents have taken place on malls or sidewalks on the Tempe campus between about 9:30 and 10:45 a.m. or between about 3 and 8 p.m., ASU Police Cmdr. Jim Hardina said.
Tempe Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Carbajal said no accounts of similar attacks have been reported outside of the ASU campus.
The man has consistently been described as having darker skin, black hair, in his early 20s and sometimes wearing a backpack, Hardina said.
Aside from a larger presence of uniformed officers on campus and undercover officers in the mall areas on campus, Spradling said the police are mainly asking for the help of the public.
Anyone with any information about these incidents should call ASU Police at 480-965-3456.
Reach the reporter at mhendley@asu.edu
