Metro strengthens assault investigation

Keith Paul

Thursday, April 6, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

Metro Police are stepping up patrols in southwest Las Vegas and two detectives are focusing all of their attention on catching a man suspected in a string of attacks on teenage girls in the area.

The most recent attack was last Thursday when the man approached a 15-year-old girl in the area of Gunderson Boulevard and Ridgeville Street, near Jones Boulevard and Flamingo Road, about 3 p.m. The man showed the girl a weapon and tried to force her to come with him before she was able to run away, police said.

"The Southwest Area Command has two utility squads that can saturate the area with patrol," said Lt. Tom Monahan of Metro's sexual assault unit. "I have freed two detectives from their daily responsibilities and they will be working this case exclusively."

The same man is suspected in five other attempted abductions last year and one kidnapping in which a girl was sexually assaulted. On Dec. 15 the man tried to abduct three 13-year-old girls in separate attacks in southwest Las Vegas -- in the 5200 and 5700 blocks of West Tropicana Avenue and 7400 block of West Russell Road. The girls were all able to run away without being assaulted.

There were three other assaults involving 11- and 12-year-old girls during the four weeks before the Dec. 15 attacks. In one of those, a girl was abducted, taken to an apartment complex and sexually assaulted, police said.

The suspect has been described by various girls as white, Hispanic or Asian. All of the girls have said the man was in his 20s, with a medium build, 5-feet-6-inches tall with straight, black hair in a bowl-style cut, police said.

"We're working with the assumption that it's one person until proven otherwise," Monahan said.

Monahan said detectives aren't sure that the man stopped preying on girls from December to March. In many of the reported cases, the girls were able to get away unharmed and Monahan speculated there could have been other unsuccessful attacks that weren't reported.

History tells detectives that a pedophile won't stop looking for victims until he's arrested, convicted and put in prison, Monahan said.

Anyone who has information on the man hsould call Detective Jon Scott or Kevin Morganstern at 229-3421 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.