UC police: Woman pepper-sprays man who grabbed her
The man "came out of the bushes and told her he was going to follow her and sexually assault her," police said in a WarnMe alert.
A woman pepper-sprayed a man Tuesday night on the Berkeley-Albany border after he said he wanted to sexually assault her and pulled her off her bike, police report.
The man fled the area and the woman escaped injury, the University of California Police Department said in an early-morning email alert.
According to UCPD, the woman was riding her bike on the pathway that runs along the southern border of University Village in Albany when the crime happened, sometime between 7:30-8 p.m.
The man "came out of the bushes and told her he was going to follow her and sexually assault her," UCPD wrote. "The victim verbally responded to this threat and continued to ride past the suspect."
That's when the man grabbed the woman from behind, pulling her off her bike, police wrote.
When he began to pull her backward toward the bushes, the woman pepper-sprayed the man and was able to escape, UCPD said.
Read more about crime near UC Berkeley.
The man — who was described as white with face and neck tattoos, 5 feet 10 to 6 feet tall with a skinny build, wearing all black clothing and a blue medical mask — fled on Eighth Street, police said.
One caller also told police the man had been "an ongoing problem all day" and was "possibly stalking women," according to emergency dispatches reviewed by The Scanner.
UCPD asks anyone with information about this incident to call 510-642-6760.
