PALO ALTO — Police were asking for the public’s help in finding a man who sexually assaulted a woman in a pedestrian underpass this weekend, authorities said.
A statement from police said a dispatcher received a call around 2:50 p.m. Sunday from a person reporting he found a woman in the California Avenue pedestrian underpass who told him she had been sexually assaulted.
The woman told officers she was walking her bicycle east through the underpass when a man walking his bike westbound passed her. The woman said the man struck her from behind; she fell, and the man then sexually assaulted her. When she yelled for help, the man took her cell phone and fled.
Other officers found the woman’s phone about a mile away in the 3000 block of Emerson Street and began processing it for evidence.
Palo Alto Fire Department paramedics took the woman to a hospital for a forensic examination as well as treatment of a cut to the back of her head and bruising to her neck.
Police said the victim described her attacker as an Asian man about 30 to 40 years old, about 5-foot-5 with a stocky build, clean-shaven and wearing a dark bicycle helmet, dark sunglasses and a high-visibility yellow top.
Investigators plan to work with a police artist Monday to create a sketch and are seeking any surveillance-camera footage from the neighborhood. Police said there have been no other similar reports.
The underpass, about 50 yards long, runs between the California Avenue train plaza and Bowden Park, on the other side of Alma Street.
Anyone with information may call the department at 650-329-2413, e-mail anonymous tips to paloalto@tipnow.org or send texts or voicemail to 650-383-8984.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
Source: www.mercurynews.com