Search for man who tried to kidnap, sexually assault six-year-old in East Austin
AUSTIN, Texas - Police are searching for a man they say tried to kidnap and sexually assault a 6-year-old girl in East Austin last Thursday.
Police reported the incident occurred at an apartment complex on the 2600 block of East Martin Luther King Boulevard. Though multiple people confirmed the incident occurred at the M Station apartments, an affordable housing complex on the 2900 block of East Martin Luther King Boulevard.
“At first when I moved in the kids are outside -- every weekend they’re outside, after school they’re outside playing and now they’re not.” said Yolanda Zamora, who lives at the complex.
Zamora says many parents are now afraid to let their children outside. And noted the silence that seems to have fallen on the once-bustling family filled complex. “I’m a mother and a grandmother and I have my grandchildren that come out here and play all the time -- and my children come out here and play too -- and now I don’t even want them outside by themselves,” she said.
Multiple neighbors tell FOX 7 Austin the man approached at least one other girl, also under the age of ten.
FOX 7 Austin spoke with a woman who asked to remain anonymous, her son was with one of the girls and saw the suspect. “[My son] and her were walking her dog, they wind up getting approached by the guy and he tried to bend down to touch her dog, saying it was a cute dog,” she explained.
At this point, the girl’s dog ran off, so the boy and girl parted ways. The man then tried to pull the little girl into the complex’s laundry room. “The little girl said when he approached her he was asking her what the combination for the laundry room is and she figured okay, you live here you should know it.” the woman explained.
Tuesday the laundry room remained closed as neighbors kept an eye out for the man, using a cell phone photo a bystander was able to capture. The man is well-dressed, 6’2 to 6’5 in his mid-twenties “but looks young” and black.
Neighbors tell FOX 7 Austin the man also had “two big black moles on the left side of his face.”
Police say the man ran from the apartment complex after a neighbor, was able to intervene and help the 6-year-old girl.
“It’s protecting a small child so I am glad neighbors stepped up, intervened and saved the child from getting hurt further that’s a risk I don’t want to tell other neighbors to take but they did the right action at this moment,” said Detective Raul Carrillo with the Austin Police Department.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Austin Police Department at 512-472-8477 and 512-974-6880.