Police are searching for a man who they said violently sexually assaulted a woman in Miami earlier this month.
The incident happened around 5 a.m. on May 7 when the woman was walking along Biscayne Boulevard near Northeast 32nd Street after getting off a Miami-Dade Transit bus at the Omni Station.
Miami Police officials said the woman was suddenly approached from behind by a man who covered her mouth with a cloth and dragged her into an empty lot.
The victim said she was dragged to an area with a tarp under some trees, where she was sexually assaulted by the man.
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He covered her mouth with a cloth to prevent her from yelling for help, but she fought back and even bit his hand, police said.
The victim was eventually able to escape and found police.
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Officials said she had injuries to the left side of her jaw and cuts on her lips from the frightening encounter.
Surveillance video released by police on Thursday showed the man in the clothing he wore during the incident and then in a change of clothes immediately after the incident so he could elude police, officials said.
“We believe that he was looking around, he was hunting for someone. It’s very possible he might have done something similar before or attempted something similar before," Miami Police spokesman Michael Vega said. "And we think he would be capable of doing it again so we want to make sure we identify him and get him off the streets.”
Police described the suspect as being around 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9, with a slim muscular build and bald head at the time of the incident. He spoke with an accent, possibly Haitian or African, and his earlobes are distinctly L-shaped and small as depicted in the video, police said.
Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to contact the Miami Police Department’s Special Victims Unit at 305-603-6300.
