ELYRIA — Police in Lorain and Elyria continue to look for a man who boldly attempted to abduct several children Thursday morning and they are asking the public to report anything, no matter how small it may seem, that could help identify the man and get him off the streets.
Elyria police Capt. Chris Costantino and Lorain police Detective Buddy Sivert both said they hope to identify the man who terrorized girls and their families in both cities, and they are working closely with the FBI.
Costantino said there is no such thing as a small lead, because even the smallest bit of information will often lead to something bigger and more helpful in making an arrest.
“I never discount anything and we encourage the public to talk to us,” he said.
Police aren’t ruling out that the same man is responsible for the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl from her Furnace Street bedroom in Elyria at 3:45 a.m. as well as several attempted abductions and assaults of girls walking to school on Washington Avenue in Lorain just hours later.
No similar incidents have been reported in either city since Thursday.
Sivert said chances are someone out there, whether a friend or relative of the man, knows who he is.
“This person’s behavior is dangerous to kids and himself,” Sivert said. “We want him in custody to prevent a child from being hurt but to also get him the help he needs because obviously this is some sort of sickness he has.”
The girls involved in both the Lorain and Elyria incidents described the man as white and in his 20s or 30s wearing all black. The victim in Elyria told her father the man had brown eyes.
In Lorain, the girls were all approached on the city’s west side. The first incident happened at 6:07 a.m. in the area of Washington Avenue and West Ninth Street. The man grabbed a juvenile girl by the arm, made a threatening comment and punched her twice. She screamed, and the man ran from the area. Neighbors heard the girl’s screams and told police the man ran toward West Eighth Street.
At 7:20 a.m. in the area of Oberlin Avenue and West Eighth Street, a man believed to be the same man exposed himself and followed a juvenile girl into a yard before running west on West Eighth Street.
About 26 minutes later in the area of West 18th Street and Oakdale Avenue, a man grabbed a girl from behind and ran east on West 18th Street when she started kicking and screaming.
The oldest girl was 15 and the others were younger students, possibly elementary students.
Both departments released 911 calls Friday describing just how terrifying the incidents were to all those involved.
In Lorain, neighbors and family members heard the screams of school girls and called police.
One woman said she and her husband heard one of the girls screaming so they opened the door and the girl ran inside. The woman told a dispatcher she saw a man wearing all black following the girl.
“I was just walking down the street,” a girl breathing heavily, crying and barely able to speak, told a dispatcher in a call from the good Samaritans’ home.
Another woman said her 13-year-old daughter was waiting on a street corner for the bus when she ran inside and told her mother a man was chasing her.
At first the woman thought her daughter was exaggerating about what had happened, but then she saw a man at Oberlin Avenue and West Eighth Street wearing all black and a black ski mask.
She went out on her front porch and yelled to the man to ask what he had done to her daughter and the man reportedly turned around, called her an obscene name and made a comment about one of her body parts before walking across Oberlin Avenue.
Another mother called from Oakdale Avenue to say a white man tried to pick up her 9-year-old daughter and take her while touching her private parts as she was walking to school with a group of friends.
The woman’s daughter told a dispatcher the man was wearing a black hoodie with a black T-shirt covering his mouth, and he dropped her before running south on Long Avenue toward West 18th Street.
Hawthorne Elementary School Principal Stephanie Alexander-Johnson also called police and told a dispatcher that a group of students ran into the building and described the attempted abduction of one of her students by a man wearing all black and a ski mask, who grabbed the girl and choked her.
“I guess he released the child and he’s running,” the teacher said, as students relayed to her what had happened as she was on the phone with a dispatcher.
In Elyria, the victim’s father described to a dispatcher how his terrified daughter ran screaming into his room to tell him someone wearing all black had come through her bedroom window and tried to grab her legs.
The father told police he grabbed a gun and ran half-naked out of the Furnace Street home in an attempt to locate the intruder, following footprints in the snow that led toward Garfield Avenue.
Police said the footprints dissipated and they were unable to see exactly where they led, but they hope evidence gathered from the scene — numerous items that were carried from the home Friday, including an entire bedroom window — will result in an arrest.
According to 911 calls, the girl’s father said someone also entered his Furnace Street residence the day before about 5 a.m. through a door he’s never used the entire time he’s lived there, according to information from his security system, and the system shows that someone may have been in the home for up to 10 minutes, possibly opening windows, he told police.
“There’s no question that this is a person who has some serious issues and we want to find out who they are before they seriously hurt someone,” Costantino said. “They’ve already done some serious psychological damage to the victims.”
Anyone with information on the incidents should call Elyria police at 323-3302 or Lorain police at 204-2100.
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