Arrest in Costa Mesa Assaults

Costa Mesa police arrested the first suspect in a string of sexual assaults along Victoria Street where 11 women have been groped by a group of young males since December, officials said Friday.

A 16-year-old was arrested Thursday after tipsters identified him from a television newscast of a surveillance tape that showed one of the alleged attacks, Police Lt. John FitzPatrick said.

“We’re going to take his picture and show it to other victims and hopefully we can link him to the other assaults,” he said.

The boy, who was not named because he is a minor, was released to his parents, FitzPatrick said. The youth will be charged with sexual assault, authorities said. The surveillance tape aired Monday showed one of four males reaching under a woman’s clothes at a 7-Eleven store in Costa Mesa.

All the alleged attacks occurred within a block of Victoria Street and Harbor Boulevard and targeted women between 18 and 30 years old, police said. In one incident, a woman who got off a bus was pushing a stroller when two men pulled her into the bushes, police said. They allegedly took off her shirt but ran after they spotted a passerby.

The attacks have prompted police to go door to door to hand out fliers in English and Spanish and post them at bus stops and on lampposts along the street.

FitzPatrick said there are six male suspects, all between 18 and 24 years old.

Police also are searching for a copycat who allegedly groped two women in the Victoria Street area April 25.