KENT, Wash. – Kent police are looking for a man who allegedly was half-naked when he grabbed a teenage student on a bike trail Wednesday morning.
The assault happened around 7 a.m. as the girl was walking to Kent-Meridian High School. According to the school, the trail is in a city-owned wooded area north of the school.
"A girl was walking to school and a naked man approached her, naked from the waist down," said student Makaylah Cockheran.
The victim said the man jumped out from behind a bush and grabbed her. She broke free and went directly to the school to report it.
Kent detectives say other teens have now come forward to report bizarre encounters with a man exposing himself in the same wooded area.
"This is not the first time that this person has exposed himself," said John Pagel, Kent police. "When he goes from exposing himself to grabbing someone, that raises the level of importance."
The student says the attacker is white, in his mid-30s, about six-feet tall and skinny. Police say they've stepped up patrols in the area and are working up a sketch of the serial robber.
Students are being warned to take safer routes between school and home and not to walk alone. It's advice Makayla is following.
"I'm not walking back there again," she said.
"No woods. Main streets only. I don't like to be a alone, don't like walking in a scary places," said student Denise Whitfield.
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