Berkeley police release surveillance video of suspect in 3 sex assaults

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Berkeley police confirmed they are now investigating three attacks on women, up from two Wednesday.

The first one happened last Thursday then on Tuesday there were two separate attacks.

Police say a man ran down the 2500 block of Benvenue Avenue shortly after he sexually assaulted a woman, at around 11:20 p.m. Just 20 minutes earlier police say another woman was attacked at Durant Avenue and Ellsworth Street. Last Thursday, police say another attack happened in the 2500 block of Haste Street. All three of those locations are just blocks away from People's Park and the UC Berkeley campus.

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"We do believe that these are all connected at this point, and that's the reason why we sent out this community alert," said Berkeley police Officer Jennifer Coates.

In all three cases, the attacker is described as an African-American or East Indian man in his 20s. He's between 5'9" - 6'0" tall with dark curly hair or dreadlocks and the victim's had never seen him before.

"A lot of the time when you hear of these situations it is somebody the person knows, and to hear that it's somebody completely random is scary," said Berkeley resident Simone Stewart.

All three of his victims are Asian women who were walking home alone near People's Park.

"Is it because that typical thing that, 'Oh, your Oriental, your submissive, you must not fight back?' No! No, no, no..." said Catalina Choekchai, a Berkeley resident.

Police say one of the victims chased the attacker through the University of California Berkeley's Unit 2 parking lot where the surveillance camera caught him.