A suspect has been arrested in connection with last week's string of sexual assaults on Chicago's South Side, police confirm.
Police said the offender is in custody in Lafayette, Ind., awaiting extradition. According to the Lafayette Police Department, the suspect was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals office.
The man is accused of assaulting two women and a 14-year-old girl within hours last Wednesday morning, as well as hiding in a little girl's closet.
In the first attack, police said a 22-year-old woman and her 40-year-old mother were assaulted around 4:15 a.m. inside their home on the 10300 block of South Emerald Avenue. She said she was asleep when she heard her mother cry out from her bedroom.
"It was like the worst day of my life," the woman told NBC 5. "What you think won't happen to you, happens to you," the woman said. "It ain't no good feeling. I still feel messed up about it."
The second incident occurred at about 6:40 a.m. when a 14-year-old girl was walking to a bus stop on the 10000 block of South Peoria. Police said the girl was approached by an unknown male who dragged her to a nearby yard and assaulted her.
The same man is also believed to have been hiding in an 11-year-old girl's closet at 5:30 a.m. at a house nearby. The girl woke up when the family dog started barking and her father arrived in time to see the individual jump out the window.
Police questioned a person of interest last week and then released him.
"She was sure she saw someone peeking out of the closet and yelled and screamed," her father, Edward Whiten, said.
The Guardian Angels handed out fliers with a sketch of the man on the 10300 block of South Halsted Friday morning. The community safety group also escorted women and girls to their destinations.
"Somebody knows who he is and we need to stop him," the group said.
