Police searching for suspect in sexual assault of blind woman
CUPERTINO >> Investigators have released surveillance images and video snippets in search of public tips that will help them identify a man they say sexually assaulted a legally blind woman in a parking lot earlier this year, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman was walking to her workplace near North Stelling Road and Stevens Creek Boulevard on May 5 when a man walked up to her and “made verbal flirtatious advances toward her,” to which the woman “politely declined” and kept walking, the sheriff’s office said.
That same afternoon, the man reportedly walked up to the woman again in a parking lot, held her against her will, and sexually assaulted her, the sheriff’s office said. A witness intervened, and the man ran off and drove away.
Investigators believe that based on the proximity of the two encounters between the man and the woman, that the man was following her before attacking her.
The sheriff’s office says witness accounts described the attacker as a Latino man in his 20s, between 5-foot-10 and 6 feet tall, weighing between 200 and 240 pounds. His car was described as a silver 2003-2007 model Scion XB with no front license plate and what appeared to be colorful model cars sitting on the dashboard.
Excerpts of video that were taken by a parked car’s dashcam — and released by the sheriff’s office — show from a distance the assault unfolding and the suspect running away, and soon after another man running after him. The man who gave chase first honked his car horn then got out of the vehicle.
A distinct building in the video indicates that the assault occurred in the parking lot of a church off North Stelling Road. Other images released by the sheriff’s office that more clearly depict the man show was shopping at a nearby Target store that same day.
Anyone with information that could help identify the man can contact the sheriff’s office at 408808-4500, leave a tip at 408-808-4431, or send an email to So.website@shf. sccgov.org.