A man who tried to abduct a teenage girl in Reston, Virginia, Tuesday night is the same person who assaulted two women on Friday in other parts of Northern Virginia along the W&OD Trail, police say. A search for the suspect is underway.
A 14-year-old girl was walking her dog along the trail about 8 p.m. when a man tried to grab her, Fairfax County police said.
“It really scares me. It scares me because I know that I can’t always be with her in every moment to make sure that she is protected and out of danger," the girl's mother, D'Aydra Allen, told News4.
The girl managed to get away and ran home. She was physically unharmed, police said.
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“She came in very flustered, out of breath and kind of put her hands on her knees trying to breathe. We could tell something had happened,” Allen said.
Officers combed the area but didn’t find the man, police said. He was last seen wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and black shorts, police said.
At least two other women were attacked along the W&OD Trail on Friday. The same man is connected to other incidents earlier in the month, a spokesperson for the police department said Wednesday.
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A man without pants approached a woman from behind and grabbed her just before 8:15 a.m. Friday between the Town Center and Fairfax County parkways. She was able to break free, police said.
Then, about 3 p.m., a woman reported another assault near Ferndale Avenue and said the suspect exposed himself.
Fairfax County police released a sketch of a suspect in that case.
The attacks occurred within 4 miles of each other.
Police said they're using every available resource to try to find the man and asked for people in the community to help them by reporting anything suspicious and looking at their home security videos.
“I don’t walk the trail by myself. If I don’t have my friend or husband walking with me, I walk around the town center," Reston resident Debbie Gibbons said.
“She’s the world to me, but yeah it sucks. It sucks that we have to be so precautious and we have to feel so fearful that someone will take her, harm her," Allen said.
Stay with News4 for more on this developing story.
