The search for a sexual predator continued as authorities conducted a door-to-door search in Long Beach. Police have received 33 reports from women who have been groped by a bike-riding serial groper who struck as they walked down the street. Toni Guinyard reports from Long Beach for NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Aug. 30, 2013.
A bike-riding, serial groper connected with at least 33 assaults in Long Beach has evaded police for nearly a year, and authorities initiated a city-wide effort Friday morning to track him down.
Long Beach police canvassed the area near Fourth Street and Alamitos Avenue on Friday, where several of the assaults have occurred, going door to door and passing out fliers in the hopes of generating new leads on the groper.
The latest attacks took place Monday when the bicyclist groped two more pedestrians, police said.
Surveillance video from March shows the man riding away after grabbing an unsuspecting woman. He was captured on another security camera committing the same crime last year.
"I would hope the police would do a better job getting this guy," Mallory Wilkinson, Long Beach resident, told NBC4 Thursday. "I can't believe he's still around."
The victims range in age from 12 to their 50s. At least four of them were underage girls, and police said all the victims were walking down a sidewalk when the man grabbed either their breast or buttocks as he rode by them on a bicycle.
The assaults took place between 3:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., primarily in the area between 4th and 7th streets and Magnolia and Cherry avenues.
Though police have not been able to get a good look at the man, they believe he is either white or Hispanic, 5 feet 6 inches tall to 6 feet tall, 180 to 240 pounds, and possibly wearing black "skate style" shoes.
Police said he has access to several bicycles. One of them was described as possibly a dark-clored mountain bicycle with a light attached to the front.
Anyone with information about the serial predator is urged to call 562-570-5273.
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