The LAPD is looking for a man they say has been impersonating a police officer as a way to fondle women in Hollywood.
Officials say there have been at least two instances in the past week where the man showed a badge than conducted “searches” on two women.
The first instance took place on November 24th, Via NBC 4:
“She gave a bag of chips to a homeless man,” said a friend of the woman assaulted, who did not want to be identified.
“When she was walking through the driveway, he told her he was a police officer and he thought she gave the homeless man drugs. And that’s when he needed to search her.”He told the victim, identified only as a 25-year-old Russian exchange student attending UCLA, to get up against a wall.
He then fondled her breasts and butt.
“After a while it got weird the way he was touching,” the family friend said. “She told him she wanted to call the owners of the house that’s when he took out a gun and told her he would shoot.”
He pulled out a gun from his waistband and told the victim if she screamed, he would shoot her.
He then fled, officials said.
A surveillance camera at the house captured the incident.
The second incident happened on Monday, as detailed by CBS 2:
Police said the man struck again Monday along Kingsley Drive when he pressed a badge against a car window and told a woman that her registration was expired. He then ordered her to get out of the car and pop open the trunk so he can search for weapons.
Again, he told the victim to get against the wall and fondled her several times, police said.
The suspect is described as a black man, between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighing between 230 and 280 pounds. Officials say he has a tattoo or birthmark on his left temple and he was seen driving a black Ford Mustang or purple Cadillac.
Anyone with information about the suspect was urged to call LAPD Detective DeAnn Maltos at (213) 473-0447. Anonymous tips can be provided by calling Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.
