DAVIS, Calif. — Police in Davis are looking for at least two sexual assault suspects after unrelated incidents happened a day apart from each other.
The first incident happened Sept. 27 around 9:24 p.m. near Alvarado Avenue and Espana Court.
Davis Police Department officials say the victim walked past a car and a man reached out and groped her. The suspect was described as a white or light-skinned Hispanic man wearing a black short-sleeve t-shirt, dark pants and shoes. He also wore a black balaclava face covering with eye glasses over it. More details on the sexual battery can be found here.
The Santa Rosa Police Department contacted the UC Davis campus police department Wednesday about a sexual assault reported Sept. 28 around 7:30 p.m. along the bike path between Kleiber Hall Drive and Sprocket Bikeway.
Police said the possible suspect was a man about 5 foot 11 inches with a darker complexion and short, dark hair. He was wearing a dark hoodie sweatshirt and dark pants.
The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) says about 50% of sexual assault on college campuses happen around this time of year. They run a national sexual assault hot line and are a nonprofit anti-sexual assault organization.
Students say it's a concerning time to be walking around alone on campus.
“The police still didn’t catch have him, it’s ridiculous,” said Joyce, a first year student at UC Davis.
All students received an email alert about the incident and students say they're hesitant to continue using the popular path, but otherwise feel relatively safe on campus.
“[It's] just scary, especially as a young women that bikes alone at night. I have cross country that ends when it’s dark out and I have to bike home alone on the same path,” said Madeline, a fourth year student.
Jennifer Simmons Kaleba, vice president of communications, says the time from the first day of school to Thanksgiving is when half of sexual assaults happen on college campuses.
“You have many students that are coming to the campus who are away from home for the first time, they are creating new social groups outside of the familiar patterns and safe adults and peers they grew up and there is also an accelerated speed of creating relationships,” said Simmons Kaleba.
She says women ages 18 to 24 years old are about three times more likely during this time period to be impacted by sexual assaults.
Students say they want more blue light emergency centers and lighting across campus.
“Campus gets really dark and I know it’s for animals and light pollution but it is really scary at night when it’s completely dark,” said Madeline.
UC Davis says they are updating lighting in areas, monitoring the blue light systems and increasing the campus safe ride program as part of the work from a campus safety committee in June.
