Man sought for assault near college

UPDATE 11/29/2016 5:45 PM:

Salinas Police are looking for a man who attacked a woman near Hartnell College Monday night.

They say the 21-year-old woman was on her phone, walking from the school campus to her car on College Drive. When she got to the area of Hartnell Street and Central Avenue, the suspect jumped out from behind bushes, tried to pull down her pants and started to attack her. She was able to fight him off.

The suspect is described as a young adult, around 19 years old, wearing a brown hoodie. He was last seen running from the scene on Central.

While the woman was not a student, school officials at nearby Hartnell College alerted students.

“We use email, which is campus wide to all students and staff and then we have a system called Everbridge, which is a notification system that goes to all of our students and staff, which again, just to make sure we cover all the bases,” said Dave Souza, the director of security at Hartnell College.

They also advise students to put the phone away, buddy up or even call campus security to escort students to their cars. And if students do get in trouble, there are emergency phones around campus and surveillance cameras in and outside of buildings. School officials also said they were increasing patrols and looking for areas on campus that may need more security or lighting.

Elizabeth Hernandez learned about the attack through email. As a student who takes night classes, she said she often walks to her car alone.

“I think it’s better to park where the houses are than in the park because it’s kind of sketchy back there,” Hernandez said.

As for the attack, police commend the victim’s courage.

“If you’ve got an opportunity to defend yourself, certainly I would recommend doing that,” said Cmdr. Sheldon Bryan with Salinas Police. “She was successful in fending this man off and avoided a potentially horrific assault.”

ORIGINAL POST:

Salinas police continued to search Tuesday for a man who attacked a woman Monday evening as she walked to her car near Hartnell College.

Police say the 21-year-old woman was knocked to the ground by a man who tried to pull down her pants. The victim was able to fend off the attack and called police.

Even though the assault happened off-campus and the victim is not a student at the school, Hartnell officials are treating the incident seriously.

Tonight, KION’s Mariana Hicks talks with police about the investigation and learns how the college is responding at its campus.