Police say three sexually assaulted during concert at Berkeley's Greek Theatre

Byby Katie Utehs KGO logo
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
3 sexually assaulted during concert in Berkeley
Police are investigating after three people reported being sexually assaulted during a concert at the Greek Theatre on the UC Berkeley campus over the weekend.

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Police are investigating after three people reported being sexually assaulted during a concert at the Greek Theatre on the UC Berkeley campus over the weekend.

They were attending the "Mad Decent Block Party," a touring dance concert featuring a lengthy lineup of artists.

The concert at the Greek Theatre was sold out Saturday and while students say there's no excuse for the sexual assaults they're also not surprised it happened. "Honestly I'd like to say that it surprised me," Cal freshman Sage Krunie said.

Krunie wrote a research paper on sexual assaults last year. "Basically it's between one and four and one in five women are sexually assaulted during their time in college, Krunie said.

The campus alerts went out Monday.

"It's kind of sad how a lot of universities sweep it under the rug and stuff. I think Berkeley does a good job of bringing it to light actually compared to other universities out there," freshman Jesse Hoffman said.

Officials said two victims are students.

The first reported assault happened at 8 p.m., when an 18-year-old woman standing in line at a restroom was taken to another location where she was assaulted, police said.

Police described the suspect as a white man between 5 feet 11 inches tall and 6 feet 1 inch tall with an athletic build, brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a floral short-sleeved shirt and khaki shorts at the time.

Early Sunday morning, another woman reported that she was also assaulted. She said she met a stranger at the concert who assaulted her, describing the suspect as a 21-year-old Hispanic man standing 5 feet 7 inches tall with a medium build. He was wearing a multi-colored tank top, dark shorts and a hat at the time, according to police.

Details about the third assault have not been released at this time.

Anyone with information about the assaults has been asked to contact the UC Berkeley police criminal investigations bureau at (510) 642-0472 or (510) 642-6760.

Bay City News contributed to this story.