Flashing cyclist plaguing downtown

EXHIBITIONIST

Four times since midJuly, a man on a bicycle in downtown Delaware has confronted women, exposed himself and ridden away.

It’s a brash crime occurring in parking lots and along bike paths. And it has police worried that not all the victims may be reporting it and that it may escalate.

“It’s an assault,” said Delaware Police Capt. Adam Moore. “But some people may not view it the same as a physical assault.”

The first incident occurred July 13 when a white male on a bicycle in a parking lot near the center of town exposed himself to a shopkeeper. He was wearing a red baseball cap, loose shirt and blue jeans and may have had scruffy facial hair.

On Aug. 15, just before midnight, a woman reported a similar incident a couple of blocks away from the first. There was little description of the assailant in the police report.

A week later, just before 6 p.m., police were called to East Central Avenue near Route 23 on a similar flashing incident.

“It is concerning that this guy is doing this in public places where he may be seen,” Moore said.

The latest incident, on Wednesday, occurred along a bike path near East Winter Street, where Ellen Leslie was jogging and faced an approaching bicyclist.

“As I passed him on the bike path, we exchanged smiles. A few minutes later he came back around fully exposed,” Leslie, 23, told the Dispatch. “I burst out in tears because I didn’t know what his intentions were.”

The woman’s brother, Ryan Leslie, was running ahead of his sister and didn’t see the incident. But when she called him moments later, “she was crying, and pretty upset,” Ryan Leslie said. He took his sister to the nearby police station to file a report.

The assailant in each case was riding or holding a red or red-and-white bicycle, possibly a mountain bike. He is believed to be in his 20s or early 30s, slender, with red or blonde hair.

Leslie said the incident shook her.

“I should be able to feel safe when I’m running. You don’t expect this. You don’t know who else he’s doing it do.”