Investigators sought Friday to identify and track down a young man who accosted and groped a 12-year-old girl this week near her Santee school.
The girl, a Chett F. Harritt School student, was walking toward Big Rock Park on Arlette Street with a friend shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday when the man, who appeared to be about 20 years old, confronted her and touched her chest, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
When the victim’s companion intervened by pushing him away, the man fled east on a black-and-gray electric scooter, the agency reported.
The victim then went home and told her mother what had happened; the woman notified the Santee Sheriff’s Station.
Deputies searched the area by ground and aboard a patrol helicopter, but did not find the perpetrator, described as a roughly 5-foot-7-inch, 160-pound man with short hair and a mustache.
In response to the crime, deputies will provide extra patrols around the school and park beginning Monday, sheriff’s officials said.
– City News Service
