Howard County police are offering a $1,000 reward for information about a suspect they say committed a sexual assault Sunday on a 12-year-old girl in Elkridge.
The girl told police that an unknown man approached her and two friends at about 2 p.m. at a shopping center in the 6500 block of Waterloo Road in Elkridge. The man struck up a conversation with the girls and told them he was selling magazines, police said.
The girls reported that they walked away from the man, but he followed them to a wooded area. Two of the girls, ages 12 and 13, fled, but the 12-year-old victim reported that the man forced her to engage in a sex act.
The two other girls returned with a group of friends to help the victim.
Once the group confronted the man, he fled, according to police.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic male, in his late teens or early 20s, between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10-inches, and 150 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He has a tattoo in the shape of a half-moon on his abdomen, police said.
Police are asking anyone with information to call 410-313-3200.
In another incident investigated by Annapolis police Sunday, three female juveniles, ages 12, 12 and 14, reported that as they walked across a foot bridge connecting the Silopanna Road area to the Bates Middle School property, a suspicious Hispanic male, between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-11-inches, weighing between 150 to 160 pounds, was standing nearby.
They said they felt he was taking undue notice of them, and he appeared to follow them as they walked to the school. When they thought he was following, they began running until they got close to the school, police said.
Police do not know if the same man was involved in both incidents.
