Authorities said on Wednesday that the University of Arizona and local police have increased their presence and are looking for a possible kidnapper after at least two women were harassed in the area this month.
Campus Police Chief Chris Olson announced that there will be increased community patrols in addition to officers standing by to keep a lookout for the assailant.
“High visibility patrol engagements will occur within the surrounding areas,” he stated to reporters. “We want to balance that with our surveillance techniques as well.”
The suspect has been connected to a dark blue, four-door vehicle, which Chris Dennison, assistant police chief of the Tucson Police Department, believes to be an early 2000s Toyota Camry or Corolla with a fading Arizona license plate.
Dennison said that the suspect’s vehicle might have tinted windows and a dented front bumper.
The most recent incident happened on Monday at approximately 6 p.m. MST, according to officials. A woman reported that she was groped near East 7th Street and North Vine Avenue, which is just south of campus.
A statement from the Tucson Police Department stated that “the suspect description and circumstances were similar to the previous abduction attempts from” December 6 and 7.
Before the “male suspect parked the vehicle, got out, and grabbed the victim from behind,” authorities said, a woman on December 7 “noticed a vehicle was following her” close to East 8th Street and North Mountain Avenue.
She fell to the ground and “started screaming,” according to the police, which made him release her and run back to his car.
According to police, the attacker may have been responsible for a “similar incident” that occurred the day before just east of campus, in which a man followed a woman close to North Campbell Avenue and East 3rd Street.
