Senior Citizens Take Precautions After Attacks on Two Women : Crime: Authorities believe the same man committed both assaults. Officials are offering a reward for information leading to conviction.
ALHAMBRA — Esther Hardy leaves her house by 6:30 a.m. every day to take a brisk walk around her quiet, middle-class neighborhood near San Gabriel High School.
“It’s the nicest time of the day,†the 75-year-old Alhambra resident said. “If you go much later, it gets so hot.â€
But Hardy said she intends to vary her exercise routine after hearing reports of two sexual assaults on senior citizens within a square-mile area around the school. She will leave her house a little later. And her husband, Norman, will accompany her on the daily strolls.
“From now on, he’s going to go with me,†she said.
As other senior citizens, like Hardy, took precautions to avoid danger late last week, police--bolstered by the offer of a $6,000 reward--were working to identify and arrest the man responsible for the attacks.
On Oct. 1, just before midnight, a 73-year-old San Gabriel woman was raped in her single-family home by a man who entered through an unlocked bedroom window.
The woman is recovering from her injuries and is “handling it very well,†San Gabriel Police Detective Jim Kermod said. The woman described her attacker as a Latino man in his late 20s, 5 feet, 7 inches tall with a muscular build, Kermod said.
The second attack occurred Monday shortly after 6 a.m. on the track at San Gabriel High School, which straddles the border of Alhambra and San Gabriel.
The 75-year-old victim, a San Gabriel resident, was jogging when she was beaten and sexually assaulted. A school maintenance worker found her after she regained consciousness and stumbled out of the track area, police said.
Based on the victims’ descriptions, detectives in the two San Gabriel Valley cities believe one man may be responsible for both attacks.
Alhambra Police Capt. Leon Burrus said his department has assigned four detectives to the case, and has approved overtime pay to try to find the assailant.
“It is a savage and unique crime,†Burrus said of the assault at the school. “We’re putting in a lot of man-hours on this.â€
The captain said detectives from the two forces are working to solve their own cases, but they are also sharing information.
“There’s a lot of cooperation,†he said.
Detectives said they had no suspects.
On Wednesday, the Alhambra School District posted a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the attacker. School board member Sophie Wong, who was robbed at gunpoint two months ago in the parking lot of a Monterey Park restaurant, also contributed $1,000 to the reward fund--boosting the total to $6,000.
“It just really touched me,†Wong said.
At a news conference Thursday at the high school, Gleam Davis, the jogger’s daughter, said her mother is recovering quickly from her injuries, probably because she is in good physical condition.
The daughter said her mother--who teaches the developmentally disabled children--jogs regularly at the track and has taken part in the last five Los Angeles marathons.
“I think she’ll continue to exercise, but whether she’ll choose to do it at a different location, I really can’t predict,†Davis said.
She said she fears for other women who may be victimized if the attacker is not caught.
“Had my mother not been in such good health, this could have killed her,†she said.
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