The man who sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl at a North Side discount store Monday night is believed to have fondled 12 other girls in incidents dating to August 2001, police said Tuesday.
The man “approaches young girls and befriends them, speaks to them in either Spanish or English and then grabs them and fondles them,” Chicago Police Lt. Robert Hargesheimer said.
Monday’s assault was the fifth at a Village Discount Outlet store, police said. There were three assaults at the store at 3301 W. Lawrence Ave. in May, June and July 2002 and one at the chain’s store at 4898 N. Clark St. in June 2002. The stores’ owner is offering a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the offender and said Tuesday in a statement that more off-duty Chicago police officers had been hired for “heightened security.”
In Monday’s incident, the girl was with her parents and 9-year-old brother in the Village Discount Outlet store, 4027 N. Kedzie Ave. She had wandered away from her parents when she was approached by a man about 8:30 p.m., Chicago Police Special Victims Investigator Emily Bellomy said.
“He was asking for help to reach something [high on a shelf] and lifted her up,” Bellomy said. He then fondled her.
The girl was taken to Swedish Covenant Hospital for observation and released late Monday. Bellomy said Tuesday the girl was “doing very well.”
The store, which sells second-hand clothing and toys, has shelving that is about 5 feet, 8 inches high. It prevented other customers from seeing the assault, police said.
The girl gave police a general description of the man, and officials expected to interview her again late Tuesday. A video from the store was being reviewed, but police were not saying whether it contained an image of the assailant.
Police issued a community-alert flier in Spanish and English containing a composite sketch of the suspect and a blurred image taken from a previous assault at a Village Discount Outlet store.
The discount stores have posted signs cautioning parents to keep their children under supervision at all times, according to the statement.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic man, 20 to 30 years old, 5 foot 6 inches to 5 foot 8 inches tall, with brown hair, dark eyes and a medium complexion. He weighs about 160 pounds, has a mustache and possibly acne on his forehead, police said.
Prior to Monday’s assault, a man molested a 6-year-old girl in the hallway of a North Side apartment building on April 2 shortly before 6 p.m. He allegedly helped the girl carry her bicycle up a stairway and molested her before fleeing on what police described at the time as a black bicycle. Police said Tuesday they did not know if the man on Monday fled on a bicycle.
Assaults also have occurred in alleys and on a sidewalk between 5 and 7 p.m. on the North and Northwest Sides, Hargesheimer said, and involve girls between the ages of 4 and 8. Most have been Hispanic, police said. Checks of registered sex offender databases and police lineups have not yielded any leads.
“Parents should keep an eye on their children at all times. This case is no different than any other instance when parents in stores should be mindful of where their children are,” Bellomy said.
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Anyone with information is asked to call police at 312-492-3810.