PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) – Researchers in Philadelphia and Montgomery County are trying to connect up to four random attacks on women that have occurred in the past two days.
Authorities said the series of assaults began Wednesday night on Morris Street near 13th Street.
Three women were walking when a man approached them and started beating them. One had a runny nose, the others had lacerations and swollen lips, police said.
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The brutal attack was captured in a surveillance video and has frightened local residents.
“It’s disgusting and it wasn’t even late … people want to go to dinner and have fun and have to worry about walking home and being beaten,” said Karen DiOrio.
Rick Ames heard the screams and thought a woman might have been raped. He approached the scene while his wife called 911, but thought the opposite at the last second.
“I didn’t know if I had a gun, so I stopped,” Ames said.
During a news conference Friday afternoon, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said the suspect’s motive is unclear.
“He made some statements, they didn’t make sense. We don’t know what he meant. Then he left the area and fled on foot,” Vanore said.
Minutes later, Noelle Liquori said she was waiting for her boyfriend to leave work on the corner of the 1900 block of 13th Street when the man attacked her.
“It looks like it came out of nowhere. The first time it came from behind. It hit me in the ear, knocked me to the ground and hit me in the face a couple of times,” he said.
Liquori said he lost consciousness.
“The last thing I remember was being dragged on my back. He had my feet, crawling down the sidewalk. He kept kicking him and yelling to get someone’s attention.” he said.
Investigators say a man with a similar description is accused of sexually assaulting a woman while entering work at 6100 Ridge Avenue Block in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia on Thursday morning.
Another woman was also beaten in Whitpain Township, Montgomery County, a few hours later, around 10 a.m.
Whitpain County police arrested Malcolm White of Brooklyn, New York shortly after that assault while running down the road.
White is now being held in a Montgomery County Jail. He is charged with aggravated assault and other related offenses.
Philadelphia police now have an arrest warrant for Roxborough’s sexual assault, but he needs more evidence to connect him to the assaults in South Philadelphia.
“He’s definitely our suspect in sexual assault because we have an approved order. The other two of us have work to do to connect him,” Vanore said.
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