BERKELEY — A 32-year-old parolee previously convicted of child molestation was arrested Wednesday as a suspect in the harassment of teenage girls walking to school, authorities said.
In separate incidents, the girls managed to get away from the man after he approached them on foot, claiming to be a police officer and had weapons.
On Sept. 29, one girl told police she was walking in the 1300 block of Gilman Street at 6:24 p.m., when the man came up to her, told her he had a gun and said he wanted a hug. After he stepped in front of her to block her path, she managed to run to a safe place.
In video footage captured by a resident’s home surveillance camera, the man can be seen walking alongside the girl. Based on the video and the girl’s statements, police described him as a white man in his thirties, about 5-foot-8 to 6-feet tall with short hair and an athletic build, wearing a black baseball cap, dark short-sleeve shirt with a light logo on its left side, cargo pants and an American flag neck gaiter covering his face.
On Dec. 6 at 9:30 a.m., police say a man with a similar description followed a girl on McGee Avenue near Channing Way before approaching her and claiming he needed her help to find his daughter. After the girl tried to walk away, he pursued her and claimed to be a police officer before asking her for a hug and telling her he had a knife.
When he tried to corner her in an area of the sidewalk where plants and trees limited public visibility, she fled from him to safety.
After she spoke with police and shared a description similar to the prior incident, police were able to find surveillance video footage of an associated vehicle, a newer-model red Ford Mustang Fastback with a rear spoiler and tinted windows, that the suspect used to follow the girls for several blocks before approaching them.
Soon after a third person who read of the attacks in Berkeleyside told police Tuesday that a similar suspect had approached her on August 25, investigators were able to identify a suspect, and arrested Christopher Dalton in San Francisco with help from state parole staff and Alameda County Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) task force detectives, police said.
After his arrest on suspicion of communicating with a minor with intent to commit a sex act, annoying or molesting a child after a prior offense, and parole violations, investigators obtained a search warrant for an Oakland address, which yielded additional evidence.
Dalton was listed in custody at Santa Rita Jail, according to a records check Wednesday night.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
Source: www.mercurynews.com